Valley of Fire

February 3, 2023

As soon as we started thinking about stopping in Boulder City on our drive north, we knew that another visit to Valley of Fire State Park was a mandatory part of the visit. On our first visit two years ago in the First Winter of Covid, we were stunned by what an extraordinary place it is as we stopped over and over again to gape in amazement at its exceptionally hued and contoured sandstone formations.

The park is a full hour and a half drive from Boulder City, which adds up to quite a long day. Our original plan for this visit was to stay overnight at the motel in Overton, only about fifteen miles from the park, to shorten the day and to see the formations at their radiant best at sundown; and in fact we booked a stay there for our fourth night in the region. We dropped that idea though when we also dropped our plan to visit Death Valley as our next stop and replaced it with more distant San Luis Obispo. The extra hour and a half a stay in Overton would have added to the next day’s drive was more than we wanted to tackle.

Still, that would be the right plan for the visit if you’re not camping and can just stay near the park. We were reminded of this as we began the drive back to Boulder City not long before sundown and we’re awed to watch the colors intensify before our eyes.

In our opinion the narrow, twisted paved road through the park is no place for a bicycle; and in any case this is an experience best visited on foot when you can slither through narrow slot canyons and stop anywhere to stare at formations and peer at intriguing desert plants. There are four or five trails spaced along the road, all short, and we took three of them. Each was amazing, each felt more so than the one before.

If you want to know more about the park than you can glean from the photos, read up on it or check out our previous visit which gave a little more background; or of course go and see for yourself. Photos are grouped by the trail we hiked, without captions. It’s admittedly a lot of photos, but it’s barely a tenth of the ones we came home with.

On the Rainbow Vista Trail

On the White Domes Loop

On the Seven Wonders Loop

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Andrea BrownJust one amazing scene after another. Bruce would go nuts here. Great photos on a great hike.
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonTo Andrea BrownThanks. I’ve done a lot of hikes but the hikes today are the best I’ve done in a longtime.
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1 year ago

Rich FrasierGreat pictures of a place I never knew existed. Thanks!
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierIt took us a long time to discover it also. It’s surprising that it isn’t better known, but it’s pretty remote and state parks often fly under the radar.
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1 year ago

Kelly IniguezHave you been to Antelope Canyon, near the Grand Canyon? I have not, but the photos look very similar to these. Stunning!
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezNo, but I’m familiar with it. I’d love to see it some year.
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1 year ago

Bruce LellmanWow, what a place and what great photos! I’d love to hike there some day.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanYou should definitely go. Is way easier to get to from Portland than Chiang Mai.
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1 year ago

Larry MitchellTruly an amazing place to hike and ride. Our ride there was quite enjoyable and despite the narrow, winding road, we had no issues with vehicles giving us space, passing respectively and waiting on a few of the blind curves.

Great photos …
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1 year ago