magic... Valley of Fire
Today was a day of wandering after a night that was too short. A couple of hours of sleep on the plane supplemented my fewer than normal hours of sleep last night. I managed an early start this morning, important since I was going to lose an hour again today, moving from Pacific time back to Mountain time.
I headed to Valley of Fire State Park to soak in the beauty. The terrain from I-15 to the park entrance is rolling, desert covered in low scrub, rising to low mountains. The road twists and turns, climbing high before dropping down to the park entrance. Red rocks rise suddenly out of the browns and greens, spectacular!
My first hike was to the fire wave. The trail is well marked until it delivers you to the swirling colors of the fire wave. At that point it's a good idea to have an idea of where the trail lives (behind you) as you move on the colored rock. The fire wave shows reds (or oranges) interspersed with white. It almost seems as if someone painted the rock. The color would have been stronger if I'd managed to be there earlier or later in the day, but the colors at high noon were pretty amazing today.
The White Domes trail called to me next. The trail starts as relatively level sand before it heads downward, turning to a mixture of rocks and sand. It then goes through a slot canyon, emerging to showcase rock formations in many colors.
There are so many colors in the rocks here. They range from rust red and orange to yellow, white, pink, and green.
