A Fire Wave, a Virgin Gorge, and a Rainbow!

Friday, February 28, 2014


Wednesday morning we drove a short distance over to the Valley of Fire State Park. After a stop at the visitor center to check out the exhibits, especially the geology, so that Greg could get a better understanding of the unique geology, we picked out a site at the Arch Rock Campground. Nestled in the red rocks, we paid $20 for a dry site without hook-ups, but access to water and a dump. After leaving our folding chairs to mark our spot, we drove back to the visitor center and up the 5 mile long road to the White Domes trailhead. We stopped near the end and parked in order to hike to the Fire Wave. It was a newly opened trail and we wanted to see it. The trail led to an ancient sand dune. We were able to hike up on it. Enjoy the photos. It was an amazing spot.

Entering Valley of Fire State Park

Arch Rock campsite

White Domes Road

The other campground - Atlatl

Note from Greg – The Fire Wave and most of the prominent landscape features in Valley of Fire are formed from erosion of the Aztec Sandstone by water and windblown sand. This formation is also named the Navajo formation in Utah and Arizona and is the erosion-resistant white or red sandstone that forms the dramatic cliffs of Arches NP and Island in the Sky in Utah. Here it consists of clearly visible crossbeds of red and white cemented sand laid down as windblown layers in enormous sand dunes. Erosion of the rock surface resulted in shapes that now look like dunes again. It is interesting to imagine a huge terrain of sand dunes extending from California to Colorado!

The trail down to the Fire Wave

Fire Wave

Kathleen sitting on an angular unconformity

Greg surfing the Fire Wave

Nice clear crossbedding

Local Resident - small chuckwalla?

After hiking back, we finished the drive to White Domes and hiked down into the canyon, through the Narrows and back out again. The special features of this area were the colors and striping of the rocks. Reds, oranges, greens, blues, lemon yellows, creams, grays and lavenders. Bright colors and pastels. Greg could appreciate the geological processes that formed the layers of the ancient seabeds. I loved the aesthetics of the colors, forms, and textures, against the blue skies and white clouds. We soaked up the beauty, then drove back to the campground for the night.

White Domes Trail

Horizontal Bedding in Aztec and water erosion

The Narrows

 

 

At least a dozen movies were filmed here, mostly westerns but including Star Trek - Generations

The wind whipped up during the night and eddied around the rock formations surrounding the rig, and rocked us all night. Yesterday we drove back to the lake and up to I-15 with the plan of going to St. George, Utah to find a laundromat. The wind gusts were fierce and blew the desert sands and tumbleweeds across our path. Just before the border to cross into Arizona, we pulled into Mesquite, Nevada and found everything we needed; propane, a Walmart, diesel fuel and BINGO!- an empty laundromat with oversized washers and dryers! Others were hitting the jackpots at the town's casinos. We hit the laundry jackpot! Two hours later we had a month's worth of laundry cleaned and were on our way to a Tex-Mex lunch at Los Lupe's,

The afternoon was wearing on and we hadn't figured out where to stop for the night. We couldn't find a boondocking spot online, so we decided to continue towards St. George. Somewhere up ahead a short distance on I-15 was the Virgin River Gorge Recreation Area. As we approached it there loomed ahead what looked like a solid wall of rock. Where was the interstate going? Right through a small cleft in the rock and into the gorge! For a dozen miles the road had been blasted into the rock. The Virgin River meandered along each side and underneath the highway. It was a breathtaking drive. Poor Greg! The geology was spectacular, but the road twisty and narrow, so he couldn't look very closely at the rock faces and cliffs.
Where the gorge widened a bit, an exit appeared for the recreation area. We drove a very short distance into the campground and for $8 a night had a campsite on the bluff high above the river. We could see and hear it below us. We were still in sight of the interstate, but the water sounds muffled the traffic noise. The mountains rose up around us, the wind died down, and the stars and planets glittered in the dark sky.

The Virgin River Gorge

The Virgin River flowing down to the Colorado next to our campsite. There is a high cliff between us and the river. Hard to tell in the photo.

Virgin River Rec. Area camp site

More vegetation as we climb

By morning we awakened to gray overcast skies. We had no phone or internet in the gorge, so we decided to break camp and make the short ride into St. George, Utah. We had spent the night in the very northwest corner of Arizona that contains the gorge. As we drove to town, the rain started and the temperature stayed low. Parking at the visitor center, we turned on the MIFI, checked e-mails and the weather, and discussed where to go next. Or plan was to go north out of St. George and then back over into Nevada, so that we could see more of the southern part of the state. When we discovered how many mountain passes our route would cross, and looked at snow levels and at what elevation snow would fall, we had to veto that plan. One campground in Nevada we were interested in was expecting up to 6 inches of snow! As the saying goes, “Been there. Done that. Bought the tee shirt”. We've had our snow experience this year in New Mexico all the way down at the Mexican border, and in southern Arizona last winter.

One of the things rain in the desert is good for, are the wildflowers. It looked like Death Valley was getting rain, so we turned around, drove back to Las Vegas, then out of town towards Death Valley. After a few days in the valley, we can take our previously chosen route backwards as we begin to work our way back east in the next three weeks. After a dramatic drive out of Las Vegas, past Area 51, a fabulous rainbow, and close to the Nevada Test Site (early nuclear bomb tests) and Yucca Mountain (the failed nuclear waste repository), we pulled into the Amargosa Valley rest area for the night. We had a huge downpour. After dark, Greg stepped out for a minute and I heard an “expletive deleted” as he hit the ground, or should I say the giant rain puddle we were now camped in. We haven't seen rain since we left the South.

Rainbow ending in Area 51

The view from our free rest area campsite

Tomorrow we'll drop down into the national park. We loved it last winter, so fingers-crossed, we'll see flowers this year. For now, we may get more rain tonight or tomorrow, and the camper is rocking from the wind gusts here across the road from the Area 51 Alien Travel Center with the fireworks store, world's largest firecracker, diner, gas station, and sign for a brothel (just a joke...I think...).