Vegas: Valley of Fire part 1

Valley of fire, a relatively short drive of about an hour from the Las Vegas valley on the interstate, is a state park with over 40,000 acres of beautiful desert landscape full of a variety of lushly coloured stone formations, petroglyphs dating to over 2,000 years ago and all sorts of other wonders. There's a small fee of $10 to enter the park but it allows you access to all of the hiking trails- of which there are definitely too many of to try to conquer them all in one day. You can also opt to camp for up to 2 weeks in any 30-day period, which is handy for those people living out of their vans or RVs or even just locals looking for an extended staycation. The ancient artifacts and glyphs are protected by state and federal law, so please be respectful when visiting and don't deface anything! It's happened before and caused an outcry as the perpetrators were sought out to be charged.  There's some serious history among these stones, so with that in mind enjoy your stay and have fun! 

This post is mostly about our trek to get there as it was one of our first real journeys stretching Vanticore's legs. The van is an older model but new to us, so we're still breaking her in and trying to get a feel for how she handles. There's been some hiccups and a few trips to the mechanic along the way, but such things are to be expected with any vehicle, especially one that's been on the roads for more than 140,000 miles. On this venture she held up well and Antho drove her for hours - from leaving Vegas to get to Valley of Fire to later taking the scenic route around to Lake Mead and then all the way back home. We spent the majority of our day in the van, so of course we had to stop and grab some snacks along the way! There's a market along the two-laned road to the park where you'll see a lot of semitruck drivers refueling for the next stint of their journey as well. Inside you'll find a plethora of tempting snacks and diversions from dangerously hot jerky and sauces to a vast stockpile of fireworks. People the world over love their fireworks and Americans are no different, though the laws vary from place to place and the actual use of some of the fireworks for sale in their warehouse may be frowned upon when you get home. We didn't make any explosive purchases this time and stuck with dried fruits, jerky and beverages to power us through. 

More photos after the cut!

Until next time!

XOXO,

NAU