We can’t say that we were surprised to find that the Valley of Fire is a hot place. We can say confidently that it is the hottest place we have ever been. It feels like living in an oven. We woke this morning to the truck telling us it was 47 degrees Celsius at 9:40 am. By 4:30pm, it had cooled to a still sweltering 44 degrees Celsius. There is no doubt that we will be roasted to well done by the time we get out of here!
This morning we ate our breakfast alongside a gorgeous big horned sheep. He wasn’t friendly but loitered around the edges of the campground keeping a watchful eye on things. We saw several sheep throughout the day (or maybe the same one repeatedly?), in addition to jackrabbits hopping alongside the road.
We headed to the park’s Visitors Centre for the 10am ranger-guided tour. We learned ten special things about the park’s nature and landscape in probably ten steps. There is a lot to see here. We learned how the holes in the sandstone are often eroded in a straight line because they are formed by water flowing out of the rock. We talked about pack rats burrows; lichen, moss and varnish; iron concretions (called Martian blueberries); and mountain lion poop. One of the coolest things we learned was how a creosote bush smells like nothing when dry but emits a super strong, almost smoky odour when wet. We cupped some creosote leaves in our hands and breathed on it to get it to emit the strong smell. This is apparently the plant’s way of warning animals that it is toxic to eat.
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| Creosote bush. |
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| The creosote bush has neat fluffy sphere flowers. |
Next we did a scenic drive to see white sandstone domes, followed by a short (24 min) but sweltering hike to Rainbow Vista. We decided that 24 minutes is our safe hike limit here.
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| The “you might die” part is no joke! |
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| Formations called the beehives. |
We then decamped to our air conditioned trailer for afternoon naps. Today turned into a peaceful day of rest out of necessity.
After long naps and a late supper of BBQ chicken with tzatziki on grilled naan bread, we waited for the sun to set before continuing on today’s adventures. It was still 41 degrees Celsius after sunset but somehow seemed more bearable.
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| Valley of Fire is so named because the rocks look like they’re on fire during sunset. Turns out this is a pretty accurate name. |
First we checked out the petroglyphs on Atlatl Rock. These were etched between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago. We learned that an atlatl is an Indigenous hunting spear. The petroglyphs were well preserved and easy to see in spite of the vandalism on parts of the rock. We especially liked the drawings of the bighorn sheep. It is cool to know that they were around thousands of years ago and are still here.
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| Etching of an atlatl. |
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| These etchings were a bit different since they were draw in the desert varnish instead of directly on the red rock. |
Next we checked out the iconic elephant rock. This is the famous photo on the park’s tourist materials. The rocks really stood out against the darkening sky.
Finally, just as it was almost too dark to keep exploring, we checked out the CCC Cabins. These were built during the Great Depression as accommodation for early tourists. They are now historic landmarks. There were three small rooms, each with a stone fireplace. We found some more petroglyphs in the stone behind the cabins.
After showers (the water was hot even when the dial was on cold - this is a change I could get used to!) we did some stargazing. Good night from the desert under a star-filled sky.
