Day Two: And Tho I Walk in the Shadows of the Valley of Fire...

This morning, I left Vegas and headed for my next base of operation; St. George... a small town two hours away in Utah right in the center of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.  I stayed here overnight 4 years ago during my move to Vegas.  The last time, there were terrible fires that we drove through, and you couldn't see 5 feet in front of the Uhaul... and couldn't have the windows open with the smoke... and it was 110 degrees outside.  Ugh.  About halfway between St. George and Vegas is Valley of Fire State Park, which is the oldest state park in Nevada, dedicated in 1935.  With temperatures anywhere from 75 degrees in Winter to 120 in summer, today it was only 107, which actually was bearable.  I spent about 5 hours there, exploring the different rock formations created by great shifting sand dunes of red sandstone during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago.  Complex uplifting, faulting and extensive erosion carved this valley, and inhabitants have been dated from 300 B.C. to 1150 A.D.  (see pic of hieroglyphics below).

Coming from a lush area like Pittsburgh, it's hard to get a perspective of the size of these rocks, mountains and valleys.  With so many trees covering everything, you can't stand back and get true scale, unlike here where a tetonic plate shift compressed and pushed rock hundreds of feet out of the ground, exposing the layers of sediment that you wouldn't normally see when it's underground.  To take pictures of these rocks and try to convey to someone else, the crags and crevices carved from wind and water erosion, or the sheer size... is very difficult.  You are constantly reminded that you are a guest in this world.  And while every picture looks the same, they're not.  It's impossible to convey the sense of spatial realness, mystery, desolation and isolation in this area... and the emotion that you can't help feel.  With the warm, dry air wrapped around you and the wealth of history of the area, you not only feel like you're being watched, but being watched over, as well... especially as you are sitting out in the middle of nowhere with the civilization that we have all come to know, no where in sight... like you're plopped right down into the middle of another world.  Knowing of those that passed before you, including dinosaurs... it feels like you're part of a movie set of Land of the Lost.  When someone looks at the desert and say's 'there's nothing there'... I tell them it's all about what used to be there.  You constantly have to remind yourself that, for instance, the buttes that appear to be shooting out of the ground are actually the reminants of what used to be around them but have eroded away... that the whole area was filled in... and was probably an ocean at one time.  What I really like about this area is that the people who visit here really want to be here, and the idiots who don't appreciate and take for granted nature and this earth... are back on the Vegas strip trying to be the player they aren't.

Today, I crawled over rocks, saw petrified wood, natural arches and the remains of an old movie set, worked my way through crevices and caves and even saw a desert squirrel (see below)... and I can't imagine any other place I would have wanted to be.  Double click on the pictures below to see some of the detail.  I posted about ten of the 175 that I took.  Tommorow morning:  Zion National Park.

This photo is of the remains of a movie set for the

1965 production of "The Professionals"