Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #10
Valley of Fire State Park - Sun, 16 Feb 2025, 10am

Another day in Las Vegas— Henderson, actually— another day we leave town to do stuff elsewhere. Today's elsewhere is Valley of Fire State Park. It's about an hour north of town.



We've been here a few times before. Most recently two years ago. We figured that's long enough ago that it's worth visiting again. The park's fiery red rocks, from which it gets its name, make it worth it.



Today we did get out earlier than yesterday. I was frustrated yesterday that we were futzing around in town until about 11am and only got out to the first trailhead by almost noon. I set a goal of rolling from the hotel this morning by 8.... We didn't make it, but we did leave by 8:20/8:25, which didn't suck. The point of it was to keep plenty of time for hiking today. Oh, and to get started before the park gets hella crowded on this holiday weekend when the temperatures are mild.



From the visitors center, where I took the selfie at the top of this journal entry, a road climbs up a mountain into the heart of the red rocks country here. Along this road are trailheads for two great hikes, the White Domes loop, and the iconic Fire Wave trail / Seven Wonders loop. We'll hike them both today then see what else we have time & energy for.

To be continued....

North Las Vegas Travelog #11
Valley of Fire State Park - Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 1pm

The 7 Wonders Loop at Valley of Fire state park is definitely... wondrous. There are brilliantly colored views in all directions at every step.



After we crossed the park road, marking about the halfway point of the loop, we passed through some narrows and some relatively open areas. The photo above shows one of the more open areas.... though you can see the trail leads back beneath some of the towering sandstone. The following video shows some of the narrows.



Among the slot canyons was one I dubbed Hobbit Narrows. I figure that's Wonder #5 out of 7. (Wonders #3-4 were the Mustard Cliffs and Roast Beef Narrows, in my previous blog in this series.) Wonder #6 is Bonus Narrows, also in the video included here.

Past these narrows the trail turned to go up a canyon. It was up, up, up to the end. Like, seriously, I did not feel like we'd descended that far. But obviously we did!



By this point in the trek we were starting to flag. We were tired not just from the physical exertion but— dare I say— from too much beauty. It's like we were drunk on beauty and no longer able to appreciate it as much. Even as we were feeling jaded on all the beauty we found the Rainbow Road, which I dubbed Wonder #7 of 7:



The colors are just so brilliant out here. Red, orange, yellow, white, even shades of green.

Through this last leg of the trip we did our best not simply to put one foot in front of the other to get back to the trailhead. Stopping occasionally for the amazing views helped. But even the amazing was becoming ordinary. Hey, I could live like this!

In beauty I walk.

North Las Vegas Travelog #9
Valley of Fire State Park - Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 12pm

The Fire Wave may be the most popular trail at Valley of Fire state park in Nevada. When we hiked it Sunday morning there were dozens of other people on the trail with us. Most people get there, stand on top of it while taking pictures of something else, and turn back. We kind of did that ourselves on our first visit a few years ago. ...I say kind of because we didn't stand on the wave while taking pictures of something else. I mean, we did stand on the wave, but we took pictures of ourselves on the wave because it was amazing. But turning back after that is not the only option.



There's a loop trail that continues on from the Fire Wave. It's the 7 Wonders Loop. What are the 7 wonders? I don't know! When we visited here a few years ago I was too sore from overextending myself the day before to hike around the loop. We turned back to the trailhead like 90% of everyone else. But today we've got ample energy to hike the whole loop.



So, what are these 7 wonders? The trail doesn't exactly have guideposts marking them. We're on our own to figure it out. I'm going to guess that the Fire Wave itself (pic from lower end shown above) is Wonder #1.

Wonder #2, then, would be this small arch I spotted slightly off trail:



The cool thing about hiking this continuation of the trail is that the crowds dropped way off. It wasn't empty down here— we still passed a fair number of people as it is a holiday weekend— but I was able to enjoy some "alone" time at this arch and other features on the trail.

Keep reading: Wonders #3-4, the Mustard Cliffs and Roast Beef Canyon!

North Las Vegas Travelog #7
Valley of Fire State Park - Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 11am

Our first hike today at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is the White Domes trail. Yes, hike. You didn't think we were here just to take amazing pictures from inside the car, did you?

This is our second visit to Valley of Fire. We spent a few hours here back in 2019 as a half-day activity on the way back to Las Vegas from Zion National Park. On that trip I was pretty wrecked after hiking Angel's Landing. My legs were aching after one short hike in Valley of Fire. We vowed we'd come back.

3½ years later we're back. But would there be enough new stuff to make the park thoroughly enjoyable a second time, or would we feel like we were just revisiting the same thing? That was my concern as we drove out to the park this morning.

That concern was erased within minutes of arriving at the White Domes trailhead.



The trail starts with a short uphill slog on soft sand between two sandstone cliffs. The trail then descends into a canyon. In the video above I've walked out along one of the sandstone cliffs above the canyon. The footing is off camber, but the rocks are in condition and I'm wearing good footwear... and I'm experienced with traversing slickrock... so I'm not in danger.

I scampered down from the rocks after recording the video above and descended into the canyon. Below my vantage point are the remnants of some 1950s Hollywood Western filmed here. It turns out a number of movies were filmed here. The landscape sure is evocative.

The next part of the trail where I recorded video was in the narrows of a slot canyon.



This slot canyon starts off only shoulder-deep and a few meters wide. It narrows and deepens to the point where it's less than 1 meter wide at points and at least 50 meters deep. Watch the video above to see.

I mention in the video that it's cool in the narrows. The air temperature was in the high 50s (around 14-15° C) on this February morning in the desert. Out in the open, standing on exposed rock with the sun beating down, it felt 20 degrees warmer. Deep in the canyon I was wearing long sleeves and a sweater.



In the third video (above) I reflect on the Navajo prayer, In Beauty I Walk, that I use as a tag for all my hiking and outdoors trips.

One more video to wrap up this hike:



Overall this hike was incredible. It was deceptively short; only 1.25 miles or so. But it felt almost epic. This hike alone made our second visit to Valley of Fire definitely no retread.