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| Valley of Fire Colors |
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| Fire Wave |
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| Valley of Fire Colors |
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| Starting the White Domes Trail |
The Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is a very colorful landscape of sandstone. The view across the park contains every color of sandstone imagined. Normally, since the area of southern Nevada is an arid environment, the colors are pastel shades and faded out during daylight hours under blue skies; still beautiful but best seen at sunrise and sunset. However, rare occasions when the park has been doused with rain and the skies are overcast, the sandstone colors burst with richness. Today was such a day! Seven hikers were there for the show! And, to our surprise and delight, the slots were dry - free of water from flooding! (Remember the Drop Slot we encountered only one and a half weeks ago?)
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| Descending to the Movie Set |
Due to bad timing, the slots have been flooded for the past three or four years when we attempted to hike through. Today, it felt like a new hike! When we started out, though, we had no idea that this would be the case.
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| White Domes |
With a quick look at the slot near the road (Wash #5) as we drove up White Domes Road, we felt assured that there was a possibility that the slots would at least be dry enough to tiptoe through.
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| Movie Set at White Domes |
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| First Slot to East |
We parked at the White Domes Trailhead and started up the sand dune next to the restrooms. As we crested the small hill, the colors jumped out at us! Wow! How beautiful! For some hikers in the group, this was their first trip to the park in a few years and it was awesome to hear the sounds of wonder! This view, however, was only the beginning. We took our photos and approached the somewhat treacherous steps. It behooves us to reiterate that sandstone rocks covered with sand or pebbles are very slippery. We descended the rock steps with an abundance of caution. One by one. 😬
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| Snaking through the Slots |
Since it was still early, there were no other visitors around and we took our time feeling not rushed at all. Slowly, we made our way down to the old movie set at the bottom of the hill. Several stops were made for photos.😳
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| Orange |
After taking in the movie set that had been built for the movie "The Professionals," we dropped into the base wash and turned left. Way up to our left, we noted that a fresh rock fall of yellow sandstone was piled safely on a high slab.
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| Fins |
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| Hiking through Slot |
We began our walk down through the rocky wash and quickly came to the first of three small slots. Peering around the corner, Yay!!!, it was dry. This was an excellent indication that we would be able to get through all the slots without problem. So surprised and so happy! 😃Slowly, we enjoyed the slot formation and the colors that kept changing around every corner. I couldn't get over the richness! The next obvious terrain change was the "Orange Section!" Very bright orange hues met us from the sand beneath our feet to the high walls on either side. (See the two photos above.) 😮
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| Slot East of Road |
After the Orange Section, we came to another slot. Here, we had to bend sideways just to get through! Again, dry sand to walk on. 😉
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| Hikers in Pink and Yellow Slot |
After hiking through more rocky wash and sand, we came to the paved road crossing named Wash #5. The park was barely awake yet so we only waited for one car to pass before crossing.
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| Climbing the Pink Slope |
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| Pink and Yellow |
Next, the wash presented the most beautiful small slot of the bunch. It is a narrow, curvy, pink and yellow slot. We enjoyed our trip through it then started looking up to our left. There is a sloped ramp that meets the sand. It is pink or mauve and appears before the sandstone turns to yellow. The route for our hike, today, climbs up this ramp to the top of the slope. We stopped once in a while to take in the incredible views behind us. (See the first and third photos of this entry.) Next, we found a relatively easy way to drop into the next wash and turned to the right to descend around the hill now on our left. As we circled down and around, more colors filled our eyes. 😶
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| Wash at Base of Wave Wall |
As the big red "Rock of Gibraltar" appeared around the corner, we stepped up on the slope to the right and turned around. The Wave Wall was seen on the hill we had circled.
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| Hiking around Wave Wall |
After viewing the Wave Wall, we turned around 180 degrees and began heading toward the Fire Wave. This formation is probably the most popular in the Valley of Fire and hikers were beginning to arrive and crowd around the striped rock outcrop.
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| Wave Wall |
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| Taking a Break at Fire Wave |
Luckily, we were able to get photos of the Fire Wave without any people. This is unusual! And, as soon as we finished, the Fire Wave was swarmed with visitors. We sat at a distance and had our break while enjoying the activity below. 😁Most visitors climbed to the top of the Fire Wave for photos of each other. Very friendly atmosphere. Marg dropped her tangerine down the rock and one of the visitors returned it. We got a good laugh out of that whole whoopsie! 😄Then we took our group photo and dropped down to the wash below, turned right and hiked up the wash toward the pink and yellow slot.
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| Fire Wave |
Sometimes, we do a little easy scrambling up on the south embankment where more color can be enjoyed but, today, we stayed in the slot since we were so excited about it being dry for a change.
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| Fire Wave toward South |
At the road crossing, two cars were parked to take an easier hike to the Fire Wave. I'm really not sure that they were legally parked. Something to consider.
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| Pink and Yellow Slot |
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| Back through the Kaolin Wash |
We had to wait for about five cars to pass before crossing the 25 mph road this time. This wash is a Kaolin Wash.
To be specific:
Kaolinite is a clay mineral, part of the group of industrial minerals with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5 (OH)4 . It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra. ~Wikipedia
I'm pretty sure that this is just a fancy way of saying that the wash is incredibly colorful! So, we hiked through the wash that we had to bend sideways in (see photo below) then the Orange Section then the small slot that was our first.
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| Through the Narrow Wash |
At the movie set, we learned a little Chinese from another couple of visitors 😏and one of our hikers decided to climb the steps out. Another hiker went with her and we continued to finish the White Domes Loop.
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| Entering the Tall Slot of the White Domes Trail |
In the past, the Tall Slot has been flooded when no others were. So, we rounded the corner into the slot with very tall walls and ... it was dry!!! A final "yay" and we hiked through.
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| Exiting the Tall Slot |
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| Circling around White Domes |
We followed our new Chinese friends to the right after exiting the slot where there is a worn trail and trail signs. The back side of White Domes is just as colorful and interesting. There is a nice walk-through arch near the end of the loop and we stopped to take photos. From there, we finished the loop by hiking through a separation of the domes and up by the road to the parking lot. All attending hikers were very impressed with the scenery today. So glad we didn't stay home!
3.1 miles (without added scrambling); 400 feet elevation gain; 2.25 hours; average moving speed 1.3 mph
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| More Color at White Domes |
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| The Walk-Thru Arch |
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| Finishing the White Domes Loop |
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