We’ve already been down the road to the Grand Canyon from the Las Vegas area — back and forth in a day. That drive is doable, of course, but no one would call it ‘easy’ unless they were hopped up on energy drinks or candy bars…or both. Another spectacular natural phenomenon every adventurous family needs to visit while in the Las Vegas area is The Valley of Fire. And getting there is much, much easier.
Simply pack up a lunch and some snacks (because there is NOTHING on the way out or back from there) and plug in Valley of Fire State Park into your car’s navigation system. We all know that a sat nav is a great gadget that makes life easier for drivers. Take the path north, traveling past the glitz of Sin City while still relatively sinless early in the AM. You may be surprised, once you descend and bend around into the valley about an hour later, that this remarkable spot in Nevada is only a state park (the state’s oldest park, in fact). The Valley of Fire has the look and feel of a National Park, including a handsomely stocked gift shop with t-shirts, trinkets, and light snacks for those who didn’t read the first sentence of this paragraph. 😉
Spend hours driving from one formation to the next, allowing your kids to explore, collect colorful rocks, and chase tiny lizards. Stay for the sunset, if you can, to witness an amplification of the already extreme color palette, and then wind your way out of the park back towards Henderson, Nevada for a late dinner. Before your sat nav returns your gang to the artificial light of our modern civilization, stop, be still, and look up into the richly decorated night sky. Your kids will freak out when they see the stars bolder and brighter than they ever have, before the blazing hues of the Valley of Fire paint their dreams.
Check out some National Geographic Photos of the Valley of Fire which are, I must admit, quite a bit better than mine, but I win because my photos feature two adorable young ladies climbing and posing in and on the fiery red rock formations that are everywhere in the valley.
*All my photographs were taken with the Samsung NX300.
