Valley Of Fire State Park

At Lake Mead's Echo Bay , we are already in Overton, Nevada.  So, it is a short drive to the Valley of Fire State Park.

What a difference it is now , into our tenth year of fulltiming, to find things on the road.  Things like a grocery store, post office, gas station.

With applications like Allstays for camping and Yelp for almost everything else, it is easy to locate places and also to see reviews.  When we started back in 2005, internet on the road was basically dialup speed with a connection to your flip phone.  The internet was usually located on a small pedestal, maybe in the laundry room or by the pay phone(a necessity back then).  A connection was not guaranteed. That was so different from what we had in our stick house via cable.

The entrance will let you know right away that this is a different set of rock formations.

The sandstone shows erosion from thousands to  millions of years.  A lot of red and other varying colors.

The campgrounds are quite full, but there is a good turnover and no reservations.

No senior passes or discounts here for non-Nevada residents.  However, $20 per night for dry camping is not outrageous.

Here for two days and we did see a number of units come in, circle the campground and leave.  Either we were full or the sites were not what they expected.

We were quite happy with our site!

Jan and I did a walk around the boulders and mini mountains to the other campground.  No real path here, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Multi colors with the sandstone, creosote bushes and sage.








With some elevation , climbing through the boulders gives a great view of the valley.

There are a number of mini arches in the park.  The erosion leaves all kinds of scooped out caves, crevices, and arches.  Note also the layers that show up as lines.

One desert lizard is enjoying the sun while resting vertically on the cliffs.

One of the highlights in Valley of Fire is the great collection of petroglyphs.  Some of these are estimated to date back up to 4,000 years.

Some depictions here are Bighorn Sheep, river, cactus,and the atlatl which was a stick to hold a dart.  It was sort of a precursor to the bow and arrow.


These petroglyphs were very clear against the dark patina of the rocks.

Flowers can be found almost everywhere.

Besides arches, there are some great balancing rocks.

Do you wonder what is holding the top of this rock?

So did we, but it seems it's been this way for thousands of years.

There are many hikes in the park.  And also some drives.  A few are only accessible with a 4 wheel drive with good clearance.

But we were able to take Lady Blue on the Scenic Drive which started from the Visitor's Center.

This section is beginning to show the rainbow rocks, not just the red sandstone.  Note how the road winds through the center of the picture.Click the pictures to enlarge.

It was a good hour of hiking to get to Fire Wave.  A flow of red and white colors that is totally smooth to walk and climb over.

We saw a number of cactus with buds.

And then this one with a beautiful blossom.

We definitely could have stayed longer.  What a beautiful, comfortable place!  And yes, that is another balancing rock way up top.  We were pretty sure it was stable, but then, there were a number of small boulders lying at the foot of the rock formation.