Vegas: Atlatl Rock at Valley of Fire

Atlatl rock is an ancient structure standing in the Valley of Fire national park. The stone itself is riddled with petroglyphs, which unfortunately some of our modern human brethren have tried to improve upon with their own additions...but the original art adorning the rock is still clearly visible and now fairly well protected to prevent any additional future defacing to these valuable historic treasures. The stairs leading up to the petroglyphs can be a little intimidating, perhaps, and once we got to the top I found a previously unrealised fear of heights made me want to get lower (closer to solid ground) as I approached the edges of the platform. Antho was there to encourage and support me the whole time, holding my hand and offering gentle words as he encouraged me to step closer to the precipice. This, it turns out, provided a bit of foreshadowing to our future camping trip to the park, as he somehow managed to talk me into walking close to the edge of a cliff for a photo... not something I would normally have felt comfortable doing these days. It's a bit funny, I used to work on the 108th floor of the Stratosphere tower at the now defunct caricature stand and the heights never really bothered me that much, even winds or a bit of mild earth-quaking would cause to sway just enough to cause my pens to roll off an otherwise horizontal table. It's been quite a few years since then, though, and I suppose my inevitable mortality has started to sink it a bit, jangling my nerves.  

We didn't stay terrible long here, as there were a lot of other visitors passing through and we didn't want to hinder their visit or photo opportunities any.  I also had the unfortunate designation of having to go in to my day (or, in this case, night?) job later on. This meant our adventure had a bit of a limited time constraint from the get go. It was still a lot of fun and we got quite a bit accomplished, so I'm quite proud of us for making it work while still managing to adult. 

More photos below!

Until next time!

💖

XOXO,

NAU