Friday, February 6, 2009
Drop dead gorgeous
It was a magic day, a day to absorb yet more beauty.
Valle of Fire State Park is 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas, an interstate ride, and then a switch to 2-lane roads. The wind was howling, pushing my car around as I sped down I-15, a road with a speed limit of 75 miles per hour. As I fought to keep the car heading straight, I watched the trucks snake their way down the road. Unlike at home where trucks have only a single cargo trailer, most of the trucks that I was today were triples. Triples, moving at or above the speed limit, waving, snaking in the strong winds.
I only shared the road with these very long trucks for a short while. As soon as I turned off on the two-lane road leading into the park and then on to Lake Mead, I was totally alone. Alone, driving down an arrow-straight two-lane road, a road that then started to twist, to climb, turning, scenery changing. The decorations went from low scrub on shallow hills to red rock outcroppings, turning, climbing, dropping. It wasn't until I was almost to the park boundary that I started to see other cars.
It was probably a good thing that the 5-mile long road leading from the visitor center to White Domes had a limited number of pull-outs and explicit warnings to stay on the road. There were no shoulders, and very soft ground along the edges of the pavement. It was a good thing because if I'd been able to stop at will, I might not have reached the end of the road before dark.
I stopped at every pull-out, sometimes just to stand and absorb the wonder, sometimes to wander closer to a formation, to the colors painted on the rocks, red, yellow, white, orange. And of course I spent time hiking too. My first hiking stop was Mouse's Tank, a natural basin where water collects after rainfalls. Where did the name come from? Mouse was apparently a Paiute who was hid out in this area in the 1890s, using the tank as a fresh water source.
The White Domes loop led me down a set of steps in the rock, down, around a loop wandering through sandstone formations in brilliant colors, along a wash, through a narrow slot canyon.
And then... I spent some time wandering at Rainbow Vista. There was a trail through red sand, with occasional trail markers. It was surprisingly hard walking through the soft sand, sand that held faint tracks. Even though I did an out-and-back jaunt, it seemed as though the footsteps I laid down had started to disappear as I returned, smoothed by the strong wind. This was truly a magic place, with cactus and low scrub decorating the red sand, between rock formations.
The petroglyphs at Atlatl Rock were high on the rock, accessed by climbing a tall metal staircase. As I climbed, I could see older very narrow stone steps, now closed to footsteps. I have to admit that I wonder how the artists placed the glyphs so high on the rock. Were there steps leading up to the picture palette of the rock. Or?
Ah, an end to a first visit to this beautiful place... I headed down the road, 18 miles back to I-15. I was still under a brilliant blue sky decorated with many clouds. Ahead, I saw an edge of deep blue, dark clouds clearly spreading water. Rain, heavy rain.
Valley of Fire is truly a magic place.
Valle of Fire State Park is 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas, an interstate ride, and then a switch to 2-lane roads. The wind was howling, pushing my car around as I sped down I-15, a road with a speed limit of 75 miles per hour. As I fought to keep the car heading straight, I watched the trucks snake their way down the road. Unlike at home where trucks have only a single cargo trailer, most of the trucks that I was today were triples. Triples, moving at or above the speed limit, waving, snaking in the strong winds.
I only shared the road with these very long trucks for a short while. As soon as I turned off on the two-lane road leading into the park and then on to Lake Mead, I was totally alone. Alone, driving down an arrow-straight two-lane road, a road that then started to twist, to climb, turning, scenery changing. The decorations went from low scrub on shallow hills to red rock outcroppings, turning, climbing, dropping. It wasn't until I was almost to the park boundary that I started to see other cars.
It was probably a good thing that the 5-mile long road leading from the visitor center to White Domes had a limited number of pull-outs and explicit warnings to stay on the road. There were no shoulders, and very soft ground along the edges of the pavement. It was a good thing because if I'd been able to stop at will, I might not have reached the end of the road before dark.
I stopped at every pull-out, sometimes just to stand and absorb the wonder, sometimes to wander closer to a formation, to the colors painted on the rocks, red, yellow, white, orange. And of course I spent time hiking too. My first hiking stop was Mouse's Tank, a natural basin where water collects after rainfalls. Where did the name come from? Mouse was apparently a Paiute who was hid out in this area in the 1890s, using the tank as a fresh water source.
The White Domes loop led me down a set of steps in the rock, down, around a loop wandering through sandstone formations in brilliant colors, along a wash, through a narrow slot canyon.
And then... I spent some time wandering at Rainbow Vista. There was a trail through red sand, with occasional trail markers. It was surprisingly hard walking through the soft sand, sand that held faint tracks. Even though I did an out-and-back jaunt, it seemed as though the footsteps I laid down had started to disappear as I returned, smoothed by the strong wind. This was truly a magic place, with cactus and low scrub decorating the red sand, between rock formations.
The petroglyphs at Atlatl Rock were high on the rock, accessed by climbing a tall metal staircase. As I climbed, I could see older very narrow stone steps, now closed to footsteps. I have to admit that I wonder how the artists placed the glyphs so high on the rock. Were there steps leading up to the picture palette of the rock. Or?
Ah, an end to a first visit to this beautiful place... I headed down the road, 18 miles back to I-15. I was still under a brilliant blue sky decorated with many clouds. Ahead, I saw an edge of deep blue, dark clouds clearly spreading water. Rain, heavy rain.
Valley of Fire is truly a magic place.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Photos: to the left
Silly, isn't it... These photos are from places on the left side of the map of Red Rock Canyon, from the western part of the loop road and on to First Creek Canyon.
Photos: Calico Tanks
And of course Rover was hiking with me! He was kind enough to pose for a photo on the hike back down the Calico Tanks trail.
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