April 12, 2019 – Valley of Fire
Today my humans decided to do some more sightseeing. They wanted to be out in nature again and enjoy the great weather. After a 28 miles ride with the car, we arrived at Valley of Fire State Park. Valley of Fire State Park is northeast of Las Vegas and right next to the Moapa Paiute Reservation. It is covering nearly 46,000 acres/ 19.000 ha.
This is what the brochure says: “Valley of Fire derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago. Complex uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion, have created the present landscape.
Other important rock formations include limestone, shale, and conglomerates. Prehistoric users of Valley of Fire included the Basket Maker people and later the Anasazi Pueblo farmers from the nearby fertile Moapa Valley.
The span of approximate occupation has been dated from 300 B.C.E. to 1150 C.E. Their visits probably involved hunting, food gathering, and religious ceremonies, although scarcity of water would have limited the length of their stay. Fine examples of rock art left by these ancient peoples can be found at several sites within the park.”
Dinosaurs? Are you kidding me? I think I am glad they aren’t around any more. They are scary.
After we left the freeway we had to drive some more miles to come to the State Park. My humans paid the entrance fee and after just about one mile or so we suddenly saw these great red rocks. We have been to Red Rock Canyon before but this was completely different. The stones are really red and look like they have rust in it. My humans told me that there is iron in the rocks and that’s why they are red. This must look amazing during sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately you are not allowed to be in the Valley of Fire before sunrise or after sunset. But there are campgrounds where you can stay over night.
Luckily it wasn’t too hot while we were there. During the summer it can reach 120°F / 49°C.
First we went to the Visitor Center. My humans always like to stop at these things to get more information about what we are off to. They had a great exhibition of which animals live in Valley of Fire State Park and how ancient people were probably living in this environment. They lived in caves in the rocks.
In the park you can find petroglyphs on the stones. According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroglyph) “Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving or abrading, as a form of rock art. “ 
Our first stop after the Visitor Center my humans headed towards Mouse’s Tank (Petroglyph Canyon). We went for a walk there because my mistress wanted to see the petroglyphs.
There was no trail, just red sand. I liked that a lot. It’s way nicer to walk on sand than on concrete, way softer. You could see a lot of petroglyphs and even I could recognize some of them as the bighorn sheep, people and hands. We saw a lot of lizards bathing in the sun on a rock. You could tell that the valley had a lot of rain during spring as there were green plants blooming everywhere. When we came back to the car my mistress had a lot of sand in her shoes. Boy am I glad I don’t have to wear shoes.
We headed towards White Domes first and stopped at a couple of places, like the Fire Wave.
The White Domes look so different as they are really white and in contrast to the red rock just a few miles away. This street is a dead end and we headed back to make a turn towards Fire Canyon Road. After that we went towards the East Entrance. From this entrance you can go access Lake Mead. My humans decided to go there another time. We headed back to drive the Scenic Loop Road and at Atlatl Rock my mistress climbed the stairs to see more petroglyphs. We took the dirt road to head to the West Entrance and go back home. This took a couple of hours and my humans stopped every couple of miles because they saw another great view, rock formation or something else. This is not very interesting to me but I have to admit I liked it. I would have loved to run around free and investigate the area but as you can imagine that’s not possible because the desert is extremely fragile. Besides that it wouldn’t be very wise as there are rattle snakes, more snakes, coyotes, kit foxes, spotted skunks and more. How am I supposed to know if a snake is venomous or not? But I am curious and I am sure I would get in trouble being able to run around free.
On the way back to the freeway a roadrunner crossed the street. First one I have seen this year. In Las Vegas you don’t normally see them. The last few years we saw a lot of them in Pahrump. You also can’t hear the coyotes hunt in the city. I miss all that wild life and so do my humans.
It’s impossible to explain what the Valley of Fire looks like, that’s why I asked my mistress to make a video to show you how beautiful it is. If you are in Las Vegas make sure to go there.
Here is the link for the video: videos.LupoTheDogWithTheBlog.com/ValleyOfFire.mp4.
This is what the brochure says: “Valley of Fire derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago. Complex uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion, have created the present landscape.
Other important rock formations include limestone, shale, and conglomerates. Prehistoric users of Valley of Fire included the Basket Maker people and later the Anasazi Pueblo farmers from the nearby fertile Moapa Valley.
The span of approximate occupation has been dated from 300 B.C.E. to 1150 C.E. Their visits probably involved hunting, food gathering, and religious ceremonies, although scarcity of water would have limited the length of their stay. Fine examples of rock art left by these ancient peoples can be found at several sites within the park.”
Dinosaurs? Are you kidding me? I think I am glad they aren’t around any more. They are scary.
After we left the freeway we had to drive some more miles to come to the State Park. My humans paid the entrance fee and after just about one mile or so we suddenly saw these great red rocks. We have been to Red Rock Canyon before but this was completely different. The stones are really red and look like they have rust in it. My humans told me that there is iron in the rocks and that’s why they are red. This must look amazing during sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately you are not allowed to be in the Valley of Fire before sunrise or after sunset. But there are campgrounds where you can stay over night.
Luckily it wasn’t too hot while we were there. During the summer it can reach 120°F / 49°C.
First we went to the Visitor Center. My humans always like to stop at these things to get more information about what we are off to. They had a great exhibition of which animals live in Valley of Fire State Park and how ancient people were probably living in this environment. They lived in caves in the rocks.
Our first stop after the Visitor Center my humans headed towards Mouse’s Tank (Petroglyph Canyon). We went for a walk there because my mistress wanted to see the petroglyphs.
We headed towards White Domes first and stopped at a couple of places, like the Fire Wave.
The White Domes look so different as they are really white and in contrast to the red rock just a few miles away. This street is a dead end and we headed back to make a turn towards Fire Canyon Road. After that we went towards the East Entrance. From this entrance you can go access Lake Mead. My humans decided to go there another time. We headed back to drive the Scenic Loop Road and at Atlatl Rock my mistress climbed the stairs to see more petroglyphs. We took the dirt road to head to the West Entrance and go back home. This took a couple of hours and my humans stopped every couple of miles because they saw another great view, rock formation or something else. This is not very interesting to me but I have to admit I liked it. I would have loved to run around free and investigate the area but as you can imagine that’s not possible because the desert is extremely fragile. Besides that it wouldn’t be very wise as there are rattle snakes, more snakes, coyotes, kit foxes, spotted skunks and more. How am I supposed to know if a snake is venomous or not? But I am curious and I am sure I would get in trouble being able to run around free.
On the way back to the freeway a roadrunner crossed the street. First one I have seen this year. In Las Vegas you don’t normally see them. The last few years we saw a lot of them in Pahrump. You also can’t hear the coyotes hunt in the city. I miss all that wild life and so do my humans.
It’s impossible to explain what the Valley of Fire looks like, that’s why I asked my mistress to make a video to show you how beautiful it is. If you are in Las Vegas make sure to go there.
Here is the link for the video: videos.LupoTheDogWithTheBlog.com/ValleyOfFire.mp4.
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