We drove out Wednesday night and got there pretty late—like 9:30 or 10pm, I think. We stayed in the Excalibur, because it has a tram to the trade show that Daniel was attending for work. Daniel was there all week, but Nathaniel, his friend Dillon, and I drove out Wednesday evening.
Our first day there was reserved for the most important thing I wanted to do—the Valley of Fire. It’s a national park about an hour north of Vegas. It’s full of these crazy, bright orange rock formations that you can hike through.
The rocks have all these crevices and caves that makes it easy to see faces in them.
Some are big enough to climb into. Here’s Nathaniel in one:
They’re hard to see, but there are petroglyphs on the rock below him. Ancient drawings. No one knows for sure what they mean. They’re endlessly fascinating. Here’s another rock with a ton of them:
View here larger. Or here, largest.
The boys had fun exploring all the rocks, they climbed up onto a lot of them. Here’s Dillon on one:
Dillon on another, taking a picture of the petroglyphs:
Nathaniel climbing up a crevice:
Here’s Nathaniel and me:
We drove through the entire park and out the other side, which I’ve never done before. I’ve never had a whole day to spend there. The last spot we stopped at was Elephant Rock. You park near the road and hike down and around this trail, which takes you right back up to the road. Kinda funny. At first we couldn’t see the elephant—you have to be way over near the road. Dillon actually climbed up onto the rocks looking for it, and it turns out he was right next to it. Finally we noticed the sign with an arrow pointing to it. Can you see it?
After leaving the Valley of Fire we went through a little town called Overton and stopped there for lunch. We ate at a little diner called Sugar’s.
And I had to stop at a couple places in town to snap some shots. Every small town needs a tank:
A laundromat:
And a Red Rooster bar:
We noticed a small book store that said “LDS Products” on it and tripped out that there was a Mormon bookstore in the middle of nowhere. But the area obviously had a high concentration of Mormons, because on the way out to the freeway, we passed two LDS chapels.
When we got back to Vegas, we went to the top of the Stratosphere, so stay tuned.
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
There are definitely tons of Mormons in Overton! My dad’s cousin and his wife (and 7 kids?) are from there. We used to stop there and visit them for a few days every time we took a vacation to California. I haven’t been there for years! I didn’t realize it was so close the Valley of Fire. Maybe we will have to go there…!
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Great photos. Makes me want to go there. I love the Red Roaster Bar!
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Beautiful. Now I want to go to the Valley of Fire.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:13 am
i love the valley of fire. i really need to get back there someday and spend some more time.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 am
I want to go camping there for a few days.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:37 am
So beautiful. That looks like somewhere I would want to go.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:50 am
LOGANDALE, Nev. (AP) — Fire has destroyed a Mormon church in a small Nevada farming town outside Las Vegas.
Firefighters saved an office building and church records, but the sanctuary was a total loss early Wednesday. No injuries were immediately reported.
Clark County fire spokesman Scott Allison says there was no immediate indication of foul play in the 4 a.m. fire that engulfed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sanctuary in Logandale.
Federal investigators are assisting the probe.
The southern Nevada town is about 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
-sorry to be the bearer of tidings but I found it weird right after I read the blog.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Wow, that’s crazy, Steve. That’s gotta be one of the two chapels we saw when we drove through there.