The Valley of Fire is one of my favorite hiking locations near to Las Vegas, Nevada. Located less than an hour from town (well, north side of the Vegas valley), the Valley of Fire (VoF) is a truly outstanding place to get travel through for a change of scenery, hike, or just get lost for a few hours to a full day. There are a good core of dedicated hikers (more in future image posts) that come out here in a weekly basis when the weather is mild. In told, I’ve hiked here 20-30 times a year while living in Las Vegas.

I first visited the park back when I was in Boy Scouts, but the activities we did back then were close to the trail. Some of my DoE co-workers showed me some of the best day hike locations in the park I’ve yet to see. We’re talking massive buttes and other sandstone structures, but without the crowds you see in Zion, Bryce, or other “National” parks. By bushwhacking through the different cuts between formations, you get an understanding of the layout. That makes it easy to either climb to the Top of World or Hole in the Rock (Eye of the Iguana), or meander into unknown areas knowing you are no more that 90 minutes from seeing the access roads.

Ironically, the VoF is used in a lot of movies and tons of commercials. If you ever see a car commercial where the car is cruising down a piece of dark black asphalt surrounded by sandstone, odds are it was videoed in the VoF. the last scenes of Star Trek Generations were filmed here too (Silica Domes area).

For the upcoming series, I started the hike at a very odd time-sunrise. We normally would roll into the park around 10:00 o’clock in the morning, as that gives the rock some time to warm up and for the sun to be high in the sky for photography (good for some panorama shots). In this instance, I paid the entrance fee at the self-serve location and when I parked on the Rainbow vista road, was the only person there.

I was able to catch just the last bits of the full moon before it went down in the west. Morning colors are very different as their is a lot of refraction from Lake Mead, which located due east of the park and where this photo was taken.