| The
Valley of Fire is a fairly compact park located about 60 miles north-east
of Las Vegas along interstate 15. Although three Nevada state
parks were officially declared open on the same date in 1935, Valley of
Fire state park actually opened for visitors a few months early, making
it the first state park in Nevada. |
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| The
red rocks which give the park its name are the main attraction.
The rock, mostly sandstone, was formed when huge sand dunes compacted over
time, with layers of different colors being created as sand and water mixed
with different minerals was moved from different places into the same final
location. The "cross bedding" of different colored rock layers
in this example below is beside the road out to Fire Canyon.
The red is caused by iron oxide, better known to many as rust!
I guess you could call this the Rust Belt of the west. |
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| The
alternating, swirling bands of color create some wildly improbably colors
and patterns in the rocks. Like all of the photos on this page
with a border, you can click it to bring up a new window with the photo
in computer wallpaper format. |
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This is the only
place in the world I ever remember seeing purple or mauve tinted rock like
this, and the alternating bands of color make it all the more fascinating.
Although the large
formations and the sweeping vistas are what immediately attract everyone's
attention, there are also lots of interesting things happening on a smaller
scale. |
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Along with their
extraordinary colors, many of the rocks have been carved by water and wind
into instantly recognizable shapes, some cute and some eerie.
Perhaps the best
known formation in the park is Elephant Rock, but there are many others,
such as Duck Rock and Piano Rock - there's even a rock which isn't just
dog-like, it's collie-like! |
| Quite a few of the
rocks are guaranteed to give you the creeps, and might make you reconsider
whether it's a wise move to walk around after dark.
It's believed that
the Anasazi Indians living a short distance away alongside the Colorado
River made short periodic visits to the valley to hunt and perform religious
ceremonies. Perhaps it was the weirdness of the scenery which
gave the valley added significance to them. |
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| One
of the formations which has earned the name "The Beehives", for obvious
reasons. |
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| A
closeup of the type of erosion which has shaped the rocks around the Beehives. |
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Many of the formations,
both large and small scale, were created by water flowing around and over
the soft sandstone. These small columns and arches are on the
other side of one of the large rocks shown earlier on this page. |
| Arches
are everywhere in the park, though they're nowhere as large as the giant
bridges found in other areas of America's south-west. This
one called Arch Rock is the most famous in the park, but I spent about
an hour fruitlessly looking for it before realizing it was right by the
road where I'd parked my car - I was imagining something 40 or 50 feet
across, but in fact it's no more than 10 or 15 feet wide. |
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| Still,
these arches definitely add a distinctive scenic element to the park. |
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| See
what I meant when I said that they're all over the place? |
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| Balanced
rocks are almost as common as the arches - this one is right beside the
visitor center. |
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| Here's another large
balanced rock. The black surface is caused by "desert varnish",
a very slow-building chemical layer of manganese oxide on a clay base;
it's thought that bacteria might also be involved in the process. |
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There's more to do
in the park than just look at rocks.
You can find ancient
Indian petroglyphs, or rock drawings, in several places, the most accessible
being Atlatl Rock. The word "atlatl" in the Nahuatl language
refers to a stick, similar to many used by primitive cultures around the
world, used to propel a spear further than it can normally be thrown.
In this detail from the drawings from this site, I believe that the second
petroglyph from the top is an atlatl; you can see the slot at the right-hand
end where the spear is fitted before being thrown.
Petroglyphs are often
carved onto rock faces coated with desert varnish, since these surfaces
provide a nice contrast between the black varnish and the underlying red
rock. |
| The
petrified trees are another bonus attraction in the park. This
one, which is part of a group of 4 or 5, is only a short distance from
Atlatl Rock, but there are others in the area as well. This
shot was taken in April, when the springtime wildflowers were adding color
everywhere. |
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Many of the desert's
insects are only active during the brief period in spring when the flowers
are out; at this time there were hundreds of interesting looking caterpillars
around, as well as bee flies.
The number of flowers
varies vastly from year to year, depending entirely on how much rain has
fallen. This area, along with much of the rest of the south-western
United States, has been in the grip of a serious drought for the better
part of 10 years, which has lowered nearby Lake Mead to a point where almost
all of the boat ramps are unuseable. There's a lot of concern,
backed up by archaeological evidence, that this represents normal conditions,
and that most of the 20th century was actually unusually wet. |
| The cacti are one
family of plants which can reliably be counted on to blossom even if the
weather has been dry.
This is a beavertail
cactus, they're the most common ones in the park, together with the cholla
cactus which has green flowers. |
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| Spring
is excellent for finding flowers and insects, but it's still too cool for
many of the reptiles, though you might see at least a few chuckwallas.
I was back just six weeks later at the end of May, and found many of the
Valley of Fire's lizards out and about. As well as the
chuckwallas and this fascinating horned lizard, the Valley of Fire also
has a fairly good population of gila monsters, one of only two poisonous
lizards in the world. Although I searched, I didn't see any
of them, nor any snakes or tortoises, but I still consider my encounters
with the lizards one of the best highlights of my trip. |
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If
you enjoyed the Valley of Fire then you might enjoy Tahquitz
Canyon or the
Coachella Valley Preserve in California, or the
Lower Huron Metropark in Michigan.
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