The Las Vegas OUTBACK...
Click on the pictures to get the large version!
Valley of
Fire,
1 1/4 hour NorthWest of Vegas
For great hiking instructions
all around the Vegas
area, check out Branch Whitney's site at:
http://www.hikinglasvegas.com/index.html
Photos from January 6th, 2003
Catching the sunset driving back to Vegas...
***************
Taken in 2000...
The following is an excerpt from:
http://www.sunsetcities.com/valleyoffire.html
Check out their photo gallery of other Las Vegas area wonders.
Dedicated in 1935, the Valley of Fire
State Park is Nevada's
oldest state park. The park gets its name from its incredible
red sandstone formations. The red sandstone is part of the
Aztec Formation found throughout this part of the
Southwest. This is the same geologic formation found in
Red Rock Canyon, and along the North Shore Road of Lake
Mead at places like Redstone.
This 46,000 acre park is located just 55 miles northeast of
Las Vegas. The Valley of Fire is a place of such rare and
sublime beauty that people have been attracted to for
thousands of years. To the ancient Anasazi, the Valley of
Fire, was a place for ceremonies. This is evidenced by the
large number of Petroglyphs found in several places
throughout the park. The Anasazi may even have hunted
and stayed here temporarily. There are archeological
remains and evidence of a site just west of the Atlatl Rock
exhibits.
The Valley of Fire shares its geological history with Red
Rock Canyon. This area, once at the bottom of a deep
ocean basin, eventually became part of a vast desert about
150 to 180 million years ago. Continued sedimentary
deposition in the area buried the once shifting sands of this
desert deep within the earth. Orogenic activity associated
with the subduction of oceanic crust along the Pacific coast
approximately 65 million years ago, caused a tremendous
faulting, uplifting and shifting of the earths crust. This
resulted in the tremendous diversity in geological
formations found throughout this area. Erosion eventually
exposed the remains of the ancient desert.
More info about the state park can be found at:
http://www.desertusa.com/nvval/index.html
