Fire Nevada. USA. Valley of Fire in Nevada, a colorful landscape in stone near Las Vegas. What to see in the Valley of Fire

TOURS FROM LAS VEGAS TO NEVADA NATURAL RESERVES

The desert state of Nevada, in close proximity to Las Vegas, is home to several nature reserves. Of course, these reserves are less known than the Grand Canyon National Park, but they are much closer to Las Vegas and fit very well into the “from morning to lunch” period, i.e. time when experienced tourists go out into nature to freshen up a little and take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas casino.

Jeep Tours from Las Vegas
in international groups or individually with a Russian guide

Choosing a comfortable jeep as a means of transportation for tours around nature reserves is natural and rational. The undoubted advantages of jeep tours also include their cost-effectiveness. In addition, in many cases, a jeep is the only type of transport that can be used to get to the excursion destination.

You can always meet bikers in US National Parks. In America in general, and even more so against the backdrop of the untouched nature of the Parks, they look especially colorful and organic. Package offers have been developed especially for this category of tourists, which include motorcycle rental Harley-Davidson, BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Triumph, Victory And Yamaha, developed programs with recommendations for the route and accommodation in hotels popular with bikers. You can also go to National Parks in organized groups, with a professional guide and a technical support vehicle.

(Valley of Fire) is located in Nevada, just an hour from Las Vegas. This state park is not as well known as the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and other natural attractions scattered around Vegas. But if, when traveling to Las Vegas, you suddenly find yourself with one extra day or even at least half a day, then it’s worth spending it on a trip to the Valley of Fire to take a break from the neon lights of the Strip and the noise of the casinos.

We've driven past the "Valley of Fire" sign on I-15 many times and never found a way to enter this park. Now I think that’s right, because traveling through the Valley of Fire requires preparation. The point is that there is a lot interesting places are not marked on the map of the park, there are no signs for them on the roads, and information about their location and existence can only be found on the Internet.

We started our preparation by reading very interesting report about traveling to the Valley of Fire on the Vinsky forum: http://forum.awd.ru/viewtopic.php?p=3774822#p3774822 Then we armed ourselves with an electronic guide brochure made by German photographers: http://www.synnatschke.de The brochure is in English, its price is $5.50 (4 euros) and it is worth(!) the money. This brochure not only contains GPS coordinates interesting arches and photography points, but also best time in order to receive beautiful pictures. Without this information, we would not have seen half of the places we visited in the Valley of Fire.

Day 1

We entered the park at 5 pm. A record heat wave hit Nevada that day. In Las Vegas the temperature rose to +48 degrees, and despite it being evening, in the Valley of Fire the thermometer of our car showed +51.

Entry fees are collected at self-service stations. Put 10 dollars in an envelope, tear off the spine and this will be your receipt for payment. We hoped that for ten they would give a pass for a week, as is often the case in other parks, but no, one day costs 10 dollars. Well, well,” we sighed, “we’ll have to fork out for it again when we arrive early in the morning another day.”

The main goal of the first day was reconnaissance of the area before the morning race. Since the main points of interest are not indicated on the map in any way, I wanted to find them in the evening, so as not to waste precious time before sunrise the next morning. The plan was only partially justified.

The first official attraction of the park that came our way was a stone with ancient Indian petroglyphs, Atlatl Rock.

It is located at the top of the rock and a staircase for visitors leads to it.

Windstone Arch

We didn't stay long at the inscribed stone and drove on along the Loop Road. Somewhere along this road we were to find a small Windstone Arch. The brochure gave GPS coordinates and said that it was not easy to find, and indeed it turned out to be so. I wandered among the stones with a phone GPS and could not find a point whose coordinates would coincide with the numbers written on a piece of paper. The process of searching for Windstone Arch itself was interesting because in the meantime we photographed interesting stones that came our way.

After half an hour of such fermentation, I slapped myself on the forehead, realizing my mistake. The road containing Atlatl Rock, Arch Rock, and Windstone Arch loops from the park's main highway to the same highway. We pulled in at a stone with Indian writing on it because that driveway was paved. And Windstone Arch is located on the opposite - southern entrance of the loop, which we passed without noticing.

Finally, the required stone was found.

Windstone Arch is interesting because it is located inside a rock. Wind, sand and water carved a cave in the stone, and inside it, such a rickety structure was miraculously preserved. We would never have found this arch on our own, and if we had, we most likely would not have paid attention, and only thanks to the Vinsky travel forum and German photographers, we were able to more thoughtfully examine this stone and appreciate the play of erosion. We diligently tried to remember the location so we could find it the next morning and then drove to Scenic Drive, which leads north from the visitor center.

Evening was approaching, but it did not bring any coolness. The only difference between evening and day was that the sun no longer burned, although the air remained just as hot and instantly dried out your nose, lips and mouth as soon as you got out of the car.

Further along the way deeper into the park, next to Loop Road, there was a sign pointing to another official, but not very remarkable Beehives attraction - rocks in the shape of hives of wild bees. I didn't want to waste any time on them, but Nat insisted and took a few pictures.

Originally, after the Loop Road, I wanted to go to Fire Wave, which, as the brochure said, looked best at sunset. The Fire Wave became something of an unofficial symbol of the Valley of Fire after it was discovered by Synnatschke photographers. However, there were already three cars in the parking lot next to the sign for Fire Wave. Here we had to choose either to go to the Fire Wave and jostle with those people, or to continue searching for three other points that were somewhere nearby and had mysterious names: Crazy Hill, Fire Cave and Thunder Arch (Thunderstorm Arch). All these names are unofficial - they were invented by the same German photographers, but de facto they have already become standard names on Internet resources where discussions of the Valley of Fire take place.

The path to Fire Wave led to the east, and to Crazy Hill and Thunder Arch - to the southwest. I was torn by internal contradictions and ended up leaving Fire Wave the next day.

Fire Cave

We descended a hundred meters from the parking lot along stone ledges and the trail disappeared from view. Once again I had to rely on GPS readings. The landscape was not entirely impassable, but the path was made quite difficult by the fact that we had to move along stone gorges, which, although not deep, clearly dictated the direction of movement. And if it seemed to me that I needed to go not “here”, but “there,” then changing direction was problematic.

At some point we found ourselves on the edge of a low cliff. I vainly checked the numbers on the GPS and on the printout and, judging by these numbers, the Fire Cave was literally two steps away from us, but nothing similar was visible. Here we again discovered a path leading down the cliff. Having gone down it, we came across the Fire Cave, which was really right under our feet!

Although it is called a cave, it is actually several branching arches that form a gallery. These arches are so strangely shaped by the wind that they look more like petrified tree trunks than sandstone. The size of the gallery is completely unclear from the photographs. So it's always a good idea to take a look at the Fire Cave when you have something nearby for scale.

Crazy Hill

The sun was hiding behind the hills and we had 15-20 minutes left to find Crazy Hill, which was located somewhere very close - literally 150 meters from the Fire Cave. We hurried further down. Nat went down to the right, along a sandy path, and I went up to the left along gentle rocky humps. It seemed like we were playing hide and seek with an elephant. I looked around, shouted to Nat, who had disappeared behind the rocks, and realized that Crazy Hill was somewhere very, very close, but I could not see it. Having climbed to the top of another rounded rock, I realized that I was on the right path. Crazy Hill shone with its crazy colors in the pinkish light of the sunset sky reflected from the red rocks. It looked as if they had poured a bucket of pink paint on the mountain, and then a bucket of white, and then a bucket of yellow, and continued to do this until the mountain turned into the embodiment of impressionism.

If you look closely at the photographs of Crazy Hill, you will see that a black stripe of road is visible in the distance on the left. It turns out that the top of the hill should be just as visible from there. And I thought it would be interesting to find this hill among the jumble of rocks and take a picture from the road in that direction.

Thunderstorm Arch

It's a stone's throw from Crazy Hill to Thunder Arch. Also about a hundred meters or even less, and this time I knew exactly where to go. But the 50-degree heat weakened Nat’s patience and she flatly refused to go further into the stone ruins, saying that she would wait for me at the Fire Cave.

I quickly walked along the sandy path that skirts the ridge of rocks from the south, and literally immediately came across Thunderstorm Arch. The Thunder Arch was even closer than I expected. It was also miniature like Fire Cave. One person squatting could fit under the arch. Unfortunately, the good light has already disappeared and dusk has set in, giving everything around a bluish tint. I took a few pictures and came to the conclusion that I would have to go to Thunder Arch another day to look at it in normal lighting.

It was nine o'clock in the evening, a hot summer night was rapidly approaching, and when we got to the car, it was already almost dark. In just three hours in the Valley of Fire - from five to eight o'clock in the evening - we managed to see quite a bit: Indian writings and hieroglyphs-petroglyphs on Atlatl Rock, Arch Rock on Loop Road, found the Windstone Arch hidden inside a stone, drove past The Beehives, which left no impression, climbed up Crazy Hill and walked to the miniature Fire Cave and Thunderstorm Arches. There were still a few interesting places in our plans that we definitely wanted to visit, so we planned to come to the Valley of Fire again early in the morning - on the way back home from Las Vegas. In the meantime, I wanted to take a cool shower and relax in an air-conditioned room.

An hour later we were in Las Vegas and, despite being tired, immediately after a shower we went wandering along the Strip on a hot 43-degree night.

Oldest national park USA, founded in 1935. The surreal world of the Valley of Fire is located on one and a half hundred square kilometers. This place is like a mirage floating in the middle of the desert, and is located just an hour (80 km) northeast of the neon lights and entertainment of Las Vegas.
A distinctive feature of the park is mountain compositions and sculptures, unique forms of natural origin of an amazingly talented master - Nature, consisting of red sandstone, formed more than 150 million years ago. The rocks are dominated by a large number of minerals containing high concentrations of iron oxides and sulfides, with red colors of all shades. In combination with white limestones and colored slates, a rich palette of the park is born.
Arches and caves, flat surfaces, like heads combed by an unknown hairdresser, or moth-eaten things: all sorts of associations arise when contemplating these stones. Layered like tree mushrooms, or cut and offset from each other, stones with cavities like coral, covered with patchwork quilts of lichen, illuminated by the merciless Nevada sun, or lying in eternal twilight - they are beautiful. At every time of the day the landscape is beautiful and unique in its own way. This is used by photographers who come here from all over the world.

One of the most scenic roads, where I drove - a highway through a Nevada state park called Valley of Fire (Valley of Fire). For millions of years, canyons, arches, and “waves” were formed from sand. In addition, there is a lot of rock art, so-called petroglyphs. As you understand, I wasn’t able to just lie down in the hotel afterwards...

Oddly enough, the world's gambling capital is perfect for nature lovers - from morning to evening you can trek around the surrounding area, take photographs and admire the “cosmic” landscapes, and in the evening you can already spend some money on roulette and “relax” near dancing fountains at the Bellagio Casino.

One of the state parks I haven't been to before is Valley of Fire. It's just an hour from Vegas (50 miles). It's not like that popular place, like the “Grand Canyon” or “Death Valley,” but this is its main advantage.

The park is very compact and at the same time very diverse. The cost to enter Valley of Fire is $10 per car or $20 per camper.

Of course, I came here primarily for the beautiful road scenery, but I discovered a lot of other things here. For example, I walked to the “wave”, which is a layered two-tone “swirl” of solid sandstone. You've probably seen the famous The Wave (Coyote Buttes) in Arizona, but getting there is quite difficult. And here, in the “Valley of Fire”, there is a similar a natural phenomenon without any access restrictions.

How nature created this is a big mystery to me.

As elsewhere in the USA, the lion's share of tourists comes from our Chinese friends, who, according to observations, do not feel at all the difference between the “Valley of Fire” in Nevada and the Alhambra Palace in Andalusia - the main thing is to check in with a standard facial expression and move on.

A popular one here is the Dodge Challenger. Huge and stupid. Who doesn’t drive it: Mexicans, Indians, Chinese, shady people. In other words, those who go are those who have big complexes and who love cheap show-off. Naturally, all of the listed groups of citizens rent this car. A self-respecting cowboy will buy a 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger HellCat. This is also a show off, but at least not so cheap.

But the car of a man without complexes is a Ford Fiesta.

Do you think I'm joking? The Fiesta is actually a nice car. I expected it to be bumpy on the track, but no. It does not matter. And in the city, while everyone is struggling on their trucks, I quickly slip into any... I stand in any free small parking space.

Let's not rush into the city, but rather enjoy the road and roadside scenery of Valley of Fire.

Despite small sizes In the park for the “Valley of Fire” you need to plan at least a day from sunset to dawn, because there are several trekking routes with different views. For example, I never got to the famous arch due to lack of time and ordinary laziness. So put on your sneakers, grab some water, bananas, sweets and let's go! If anyone in your group doesn't want to burn calories on the 4-kilometer hike to the arch, then give them meat, coal and fire - there are plenty of public grills here.

And don’t forget to refuel the car before the trip, otherwise it will be inconvenient if the fuel runs out somewhere in the middle of the park. Well, right next to the hotel there was dear Shell, where you could pull a “one-armed bandit” in the store.

Photos

Tourists rarely come here, spoiled national parks USA. However, this is an unfortunate omission! The Valley of Fire presents a vibrant palette and play of nature that is rarely seen anywhere. There are many trails here that allow you to get to know the kingdom of stone closer. And we highly recommend not to miss this attraction of the Southwestern United States.

The best time to see Valley of Fire Park is in the morning. Then the red stones really look like a fiery wave. But we were unlucky with this. But nevertheless the spectacle was amazing! You can drive by car and look at the red stones from the window. But this will not give the full impression of the park.

What to see in the Valley of Fire

The main treasures of the Valley of Fire are hidden on its trails. Some of them are marked on the map, some are not. And to tell the truth, walking on them would be a violation. But if you walk carefully on fragile stones, you can take a risk. We took a risk and shared our experience in .

Since we arrived too late for morning walks, we first went to Fire wave (Firewave) . The trail starts at parking lot #3. You have to walk 2.5 km in both directions. The road will go first on sand and then on stones. So it will be hot! Water will be a savior and it is better to cover your head. And in the hot summer months it is better to avoid this trail altogether. Finding yourself in the center of a hot furnace is not the most attractive experience.

But it was autumn here, it was about 10 in the morning, and we took a risk. The day was not very hot, and there were not many visitors in the Valley of Fire. So we made it to the wave without any problems.

Trail to the Fire Wave (photo)

Immediately after the wave the trail begins in Pink Canyon. But there are no signs, because it is unofficial, and we found information about it on the Internet. But there is no such trail on the map of the Valley of Fire Park. You just need to go towards the colorful stones and stick to the stream bed, slowly moving towards highway. Once you get back onto the highway, you will have to walk to the parking lot. But that’s okay, because your eyes are presented with a wonderful palette that is difficult to imagine in nature. However, it exists!

Pink Canyon in the Valley of Fire (photo)

Trail in White Domes is one and a half kilometers. After Fire Wave and Pink Canyon, it didn’t impress me as much as it should have. And the midday heat enveloped my head. So I didn’t remember much of what happened there. And for some reason, the main impression was the multi-colored stairs, which were made from local stones for the convenience of tourists.

Many films have been filmed in this part of the Valley of Fire park, including the 1966 western The Professionals and an episode of Star Trek. The place is popular with filmmakers. Suitable for both Mexican ranch and other planets.

Trail White House in the Valley of Fire (photo)

Rainbow viewpoint (Rainbow vista)

Rainbow Viewpoint also offers a one and a half kilometer trail. Although this is not the longest trail in the Valley of Fire, we did not go on it due to the fact that there was little time left to explore the park.