Valley of Fire & Red Rocks

Valley of Fire State Park is a vibrant, glorious 44,000 acres of a state park! Valley of Fire is the land of the Southern Paiute & Hualapai tribes.

Valley of Fire is also situated uncomfortably close to Bundyville (yes, those Bundys), so there’s that. It isn’t close to much else, although can be accessed as an alternative route to Lake Mead from I-15 depending on where you are coming from or going. Additionally, it is roughly an hour drive from the Las Vegas strip.

Entrance fee is $10 per vehicle (your national parks pass won’t work) & it is entirely worth the drive & fee. We visited around the holidays, which is apparently the busiest time of year, but we were easily able to find parking & find solitude on some off-trail routes.

We stopped at Elephant Rock—see if you can spot it in the photos. We wandered around the red, pink, orange, white swirls of The Fire Wave where we encountered a dude coaching his significant other on how to take a flattering photograph for his probably insufferable Instagram. We wandered around the steep cliffs & through the slot canyon on the White Domes Trail. The skies were rather grey, so The Wave’s celebrated color scheme didn’t show up well in photographs, however eventually the sun beamed through at White Domes & the landscape popped with color.

We opted to avoid some of the other more popular trails, and instead parked at Parking Lot 1 (that’s the name) and just started wandering. I think this was the most enjoyable part of the day, as we climbed around on the slick rock & explored hidden mini side canyons. The only obstacle was reaching a steep drop-off that (tall) Ryan was able to navigate, but our new friend (Sam) & I were not. We practiced some amateur acrobatics climbing onto Ryan’s shoulders before being dropped into the sand below.

Our last hike before the 4:30ish sunset was to Natural Arch which was a bit of a disappointment as the main arch has actually collapsed and the hike is mostly a flat slog through a thick sandy wash. We did find a cute baby slot canyon which broke up the monotony of that little adventure.

All in all, Valley of Fire is a gem & we only explored a tiny section!

A lot of folks are not familiar with Valley of Fire, but many have heard of Red Rocks (or officially Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area). Depending on where you are coming from, Red Rocks is pretty accessible from the Vegas and surrounding areas. The road in Red Rocks (at least the main area) is one-way & once again we visited during holidays (busiest), but it seems that nobody really gets going until after 10 so if you are early-ish you’ll be fine.

Red Rock Canyon is Southern Paiute & Newe (aka Western Shoshone) land.

I’d been on the Calico Tanks hike on my one previous visit, which is a popular little 2.2 mile canyon hike. But this time around we started nearby to hike up to Turtlehead Peak which is really more of a steep-ish hill with the bonus of being in the sun! There was a surprising amount of ice & snow near the top—although nothing difficult to navigate, just surprising because of expectations perhaps. You can see Vegas & Lake Mead area to the west & also have a lovely view of Red Rocks itself to the south & east. I’m using a lot of direction words because I am still completely disoriented to the entire area & mountain landscapes help align me. City sights? Not so much!

Then we took a short off-trail detour to climb on more slick-rock & found a hidden little pool to sit by in the sun. I could have nestled there all afternoon until we got a little chilly & needed to keep moving.

We stopped briefly at Petroglyph Wall & then decided to hike Ice Box Canyon. We thought there can’t be that much ice & snow on the trail even after a kiddo breathlessly warned us with a follow up of “good luck!” Well, there was that much ice & snow. The trail is made up of various sizes of small boulders, which were slippery and caked with ice, though we slowly & carefully hiked several miles (up much easier then down). The canyon apparently reaches a waterfall, but you have to crawl over larger boulders near (or through?) a creek & needless to say it became way too treacherous & we turned around. We also ran into a shivering lap dog in a red jacket who was clearly being forced on this hike & did not seem especially pleased.

I know some folks think we are in tank tops 100% of the time in January. Y’all, I’m wearing my down coat most days of the week & we just got turned around on a hike due to snow & ice. So, there is that. The follow up comment is usually “you know it gets really hot there.” Yes. We’ve heard. I’m pretty sure the unofficial social media spokespeople for Vegas area comment on any question with a response of “you just wait until July & you’ll be miserable.”

Well, whatever. We’ve been enjoying our time so far & can’t wait to get back to both Valley of Fire & Red Rocks for more exploring!