Valley of Fire State Park

Monday, 11 February 

Just after we posted our blog post last night (Red Rocks Day), we saw a social media post by one of the couples we follow that it was snowing and sticking in the desert.  In Pahrump, NV.  Making us even more glad we did not hunker down yesterday.

The rain and wind finished before midnight and this morning was a sunny, crisp day.  While we leisurely did our morning routine to let it warm up a bit, a herd of big horn sheep came right through our campsite this morning into the middle of the campground to graze and bask in the morning sun.  It was fun to watch them work their way down the steep rock slopes behind Sprinty.


Today was a hiking day.  Most of the hikes in the park are along the 6-mile scenic drive.


Our first hike of the day was the Rainbow Vista Trail.  It was a one-mile hike walking mostly on fine red sand that was like walking on the beach above the high tide mark.  Very fine, very soft, and provided quite the workout.





The trail led to a cliff overlooking the Fire Canyon Wash Overlook

Panoramic photo of Fire Canyon Wash Overlook:

Along the way, we saw an arch, and some interesting plants






Our next hike was the 1.5-mile Fire Wave Trail which provided beautiful vistas.  Most of this hike was on the red sandstone with not as much sand walking.  While the Fire Wave (which is red sandstone with colored bands) was stunning, it did not quite look like some of the online photos, suggesting better light for photography, better skills at photography, or some excellent post-processing.  Stunning nonetheless, and a fun hike.




We continued to the end of Scenic Drive which is also the trailhead for the White Domes Loop Trail.  As we took a break tr eat lunch, this was the view out the windshield:

White Domes Loop Trail was a great hike which included a slot canyon and beautiful rock formations.




We meandered back to the campground, passing by Balanced Rock near the Visitor Center, doing a drive by the Seven Sisters and Elephant Rock towards the east entrance, doing a short hike on the Petrified Logs Loop Trail, and finishing by getting a photo of Arch Rock behind our campground.  A total of over 5 miles of hiking on the day.


Valley of Fire State Park was simply awesome with features and beautify on par with Zion National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Moab, and Arches National Park.  Even though we visited on a weekday on a cool February day, it was obvious the park is popular, although not as crowded as the aforementioned places.  Also less expensive - $10 for day pass, $20 for dry campsite, and $30 for the limited full hookup sites.  All campsites are first-come/first-served.  Also, the state park allows pets on the trails provided they are on a leash of no more than 6 feet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rockies Caravan - Part 5 - Dinosaurs and Flaming Gorge - STR-2021…

Image
Sunday, 28 August After several clear days without smoke/haze, the smoke is back. As we headed north from Moab at 7am, the sun looked like a red ball in the sky - very different from the sunrise we watched two days ago. Today's itinerary was repositioning to Vernal, UT, about 230 miles north. The recommended route was to remain in Utah and take US 191. Our Wagonmaster said not to take the route through Colorado as the roads were worse. A quick check of the recommended route saw that it went through Helper, UT, home of the Carbon Country Club Golf Course. Conveniently located about 2 hours from Moab and 2 hours from Vernal. By leaving Moab at 7am, we arrived early at the golf course and were able to take advantage of a cancellation to start earlier than our scheduled tee time. The course was nice and in good condition. We both had a mix of good hits and ones we wished we could do over. Darrell managed to lead at the turn. Kris played the back nine better, but...
Read more

Camp Blanding Joint Training Center

Image
Trying to plan today last night was loose at best as all the weather apps we use indicated 40% chance of rain, or higher.  Both where we played golf yesterday, as well as where we were headed.  There seemed to be a dip in the rain likelihood between 9am and noon around Starke, FL as well as warmer temperatures forecast, so we decided to get an early start and drive the 2 hours down to Starke, FL, where there were two different 9-hole courses to select from. Woke up to 55 degrees in Waycross and were on the road about 7:30.  We plugged in directions for the closer of the two courses which had slightly better reviews figuring that if it was closed or crowded, we could wander over to the other course.  We enjoyed 4-lane roads (65mph speed limit) till we got to the Florida border, as well as temperatures climbing as we went further south.  On the way down, Kris checked for a Starbucks near Starke, FL, and found there weren’t any. ...
Read more

Ridgway-Ourey-Silverton-Telluride, CO - STR-2021-15

Image
Sunday, 4 July Not very long after getting Sprinty settled in the Pa—Co-Chu-Puk campground, we got a text from Tom saying they were settled in their campsite in the Elk Ridge Campground. We broke camp to drive to one of the three other campground loops at Ridgway State Park to plan the week. Tom offered to drive their truck if Darrell would plan the week. After sharing ideas and reviewing what was open, when, we came up with a plan for each of the next four days. Monday, 5 July - Silverton As Sprinty is sleeping in four different places in five nights, he had to vacate his site while his humans went off adventuring with Tom and Heidi.   The plan was to park Sprinty in the state park marina as checkin for Sprinty's next site was not until afternoon. Tom and Heidi were going to pick us up there in their truck at 8:30 for a day of adventuring. All set, we started off for Silverton, CO. For about 200 feet. Tom and Heidi's Ford F-150 had the AdvanceTrac li...
Read more