Valley of Fire

Last week Andrew, Dannielle, and I drove over to Valley of Fire State Park, which is about forty-five minutes northeast of Las Vegas. Valley of Fire is Nevada's oldest and largest state park. The red sandstone formations, which it is so popular for, were sand dunes during the dinosaur ages. We had beautiful weather and a great time all around.

These first few pictures were taken around the campground that we stayed in for a night.

Great eroded holes.


The Rainbow Vista.

We drove over to the White Dome area and hiked a short loop through beautifully sculpted and colorful rocks and a narrow canyon.

Boss is so spoiled. He will only drink water from a camelbak. We have tried carrying those collapsible dog bowls because it helps conserve water, but he refuses to use them.

We thought this looked like an interesting place to take a walk. It was just a pull-over at a dip in the road with an intriguing wash to check out.

There were tons of these crazy fin-like rock formations everywhere.

Beautiful colorful sandstone.

Boss found a place to cool down and get wet. I don't think it was too stagnant since we have had rain recently.

We saw this canyon in the distance and decided to take a closer inside.

Fun, fun.

Boss dog waits patiently while we play.

We checked out the famous Elephant Rock on our way out of the park.

Roadside Beggars

Death Valley coyotes are a pretty common site anytime of day here. They are such beautiful animals, but these pictures relay a very sad message. These two coyotes are roadside beggars. They are here, waiting, because someone fed them recently at this site. Park rangers have documented coyotes starving themselves to death waiting for another handout. Once they have been fed at the roadside or wherever, they will continue to wait on the next handout. If they don't get it, they will starve. People just don't realize why they shouldn't fed these beautiful creatures. They have been in the this environment long enough to fend for themselves. They don't need help.

Ibex Dunes

Ibex Dunes and Saratoga Springs are two of our favorite spots in Death Valley. They are at the extreme south end of the park accessible by a gravel road that spurs off of the Badwater Road. We had a night and the next morning off from work a week ago, so we decided to drive down and visit.

The muddy Amargosa River.

We have heard that on wet years it actually flows through the south end of Death Valley, but have driven through here several times and have never seen it. Well, it's true....it does exist!

We also ran across some wild burros.

After they ran beside us and in front of us, they stopped to watch.

A few puddles are still left around the dunes.

A beetle leaving his trail.

An unusual line in the sand.

The moonrise over the dunes.

Ibex Dunes has some of the coolest rocks we have ever seen.

Andrew took a few night photos of the dunes under the moonlight.

The next morning we headed over to Saratoga Springs for the sunrise.

The Panamint Mountains in the distant.

Telescope Peak

The rocks are crusty with dried up minerals.

Beautiful grass around the spring.

We continued on the gravel road over Ibex Pass to complete a loop back to Furnace Creek. We were a little concerned about the deep sand that has never been a problem in the past with the truck, but the Rav did great! We both figured it would do fine that's why we went through with it, but you never know until you try (and we did have to work later that day).

1.55 inches

In the last few days we have had almost an entire year's worth of rain. Death Valley averages less than two inches of rain a year, and in three days we have received a grand total of 1.55 inches. And, there might be more to come this week. Hopefully, all this rain will bring nice wildflowers in the Spring. The park naturalist has just updated the wildflower report at http://www.nps.gov/deva/naturescience/upload/Wildflower%20Update.pdf.