USA – Valley of Fire

Day 12 – The Valley of Fire 

This morning, we are not dragging. We are not waking up to the most pleasant spot so we quickly set off for the Valley of Fire. A state park not too far from Las Vegas. 

Right at the entrance of the park there’s a beautiful hiking trail. There are vivid orange rocks and mountains all around us. It’s just beautiful. Our first walk leads us to “elephant rock”, a rock shaped as an elephant, right down to its behind. 

Today, the weather finally allows us to take our time driving around and hiking in the park (without crutches for Julia). One of our hikes take us to a valley with multicolored layered rocks. They’re really astonishing. We can see the different layers of colors within the same rock. The sand itself is alternatively yellow, pink, white or orange. We wish we could bring some home. We climb some of the beautiful rocks, Côme had a lot of fun jumping in the sand… 

Everywhere we look there is a variety of stunning views. The drive itself is pretty incredible. It turns out we love the park so much, we decide to stay here for the night. There’s a campsite (with showers… Yihaaaaaaaa!!!!). There’s even a station where we can fill the van with water and dump the used one. Tonight, we’ll sleep by a beautiful mountain, under the stars. It is, by far, the most beautiful spot we have been able to camp so far. 

Day 13 – The Valley of Fire 

This morning, we are all very happy to wake up in this superb valley. The sun is shining and we take our breakfast outside the van for the first time. Côme shares his Reese cereals with birds and even spots a chipmunk.

Unlike yesterday, we really take our time this morning and we slowly set off for hiking trails we haven’t done yet. Our first walk takes us through rocks with incredible shapes and pastel colors. We walk for a couple of hours, searching for precious stones or fossils. Some of the rocks are made of super packed multicolored sand. We have never seen that before. 

After a couple of other hikes, we stop at the Valley museum where we learn about the geology of the place, the animal species around and its first (human) inhabitants. We also make one last stop to take a look at a petrified tree and then we set off for Las Vegas. On our way there, we’ll listen to the only radio we’re able to pick up: SOS radio, a Christian radio station which plays very modern pieces of rock dedicated to God and Jesus. We’re surprised by the number of artists singing modern praising songs. They’re actually quite good and could even be played on French radio stations. Here’s a sample of the songs we’ve listened to:
– “My God is Still the Same” – Sanctus Real 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPEQ_COpBA
– “Speak to the Mountains” – Chris McClarney 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5zP14_8meo
– “Heart of the Father” – Ryan Ellis 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34GcRkWIY3s

On our way to Vegas, Côme also cheer us up asking: “Are we soon getting to the “Ice Age”?” 😅 (In French, Las Vegas is phonetically very close to “ice age”: “l’âge de glace”) …