Valley of Fire is Nevada's first state park. It's about an forty minute drive north east of Las Vegas, on the far side of Lake Meade from the Hoover Dam.
Once you turn off the Interstate, most of the drive is pretty standard desert -- dusty and about 45 degrees:
The Valley of Fire is hot enough, but there might be another reason for its name....
Even here there are green things crazy enough to grow.
Cabins built in the 1930s for passing travellers:
Part of the trail to Mouse's Tank. In the 1890's a renegade Indian named Mouse used Fire Valley repeatedly to hide from posses formed to capture him. Mouse's Tank catches and stores water for months after a rainfall. Mouse was eventually captured and hung for raiding an Indian woman's garden. Unfortunately, there wasn't any water in the tank while I was there.
The walls of the canyon leading to Mouse's Tank are decorated with prehistoric Indian petroglyphs. A sign at the trailhead has some simple translations for most of the symbols, if you care to stand in the sun and try to read them.
The other side of the valley is covered with white rock. This staircase is on the trail to one of the sets for the movie The Professionals. Parts of Star Trek Generations were also shot here.
A few last petroglyphs near the exit from the park:
Desert plants near the park gate.
