Desert Southwest - The Checklist Edition - Valley of Fire State Park - September 2014

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Next, the White Domes Loop intersected a desert wash. We turned right, and we began following the wash as it narrowed into a short section of narrow slot canyon. The recent rains had created a shallow pool in the slot. The narrow walls provided an easy way to stem across above it - no wet feet today.

courtesy JInnes

White Domes Narrows

Kaolin Wash Narrows

Andrew exiting narrows

The section of narrows was over nearly as soon as it had started, and we were back in open. A marker guided us out of the wash and to the right, and we climbed up towards some truly incredibly-colored strata. The adjacency of contrastingly-colored rock layers was so striking here that it seemed like we were walking through a fake, hyper-saturated picture. They should call this trail the "Neapolitan Domes Loop".

courtesy BConnell

Backside of Loop

Pink, Yellow Purple

Neapolitan Rock

More Purple/Yellow/Red

A scoop of purple

A dash of green

As is often the case with a trail in Valley of Fire, the end [of the trail] drew near quickly, and soon we saw the park road and the parking lot soon after. Although it had only taken us forty-five minutes to complete the full loop, this had been the most scenic and interesting (at least geologically-speaking) of our hikes so far today. Could we top it?

courtesy PChen

Sync-ing time

Next up was a hike that Caroline suggested, a hike to a feature called the "Fire Wave" (Caroline had been in Valley of Fire not twelve months before on a visit with her sister). This was conveniently situated on the way back along the Mouse's Tank Road, and - like the other trails - was short and easy.

The marked trail led slightly downhill towards a prominence of striking red called Gibraltar Rock. It then skirted the base of this prominence, passing through layers of a coarse conglomerate that we would later see strewn about on the red slickrock above the Fire Wave.

Fire Wave TH

Northern Valley of Fire

Rounding Gibraltar Rock

The easy trail continued to descend slightly, and soon we came to a broad expanse of flat red slickrock (covered with black stones from the aforementioned conglomerate layer). This was an expanse of banded and cross-bedded slickrock not unlike what you might find in the Coyote Buttes or lower Escalante River areas in southern Utah. Looking across the slickrock, we could see a broad basin of similar rock, but in different colors, often interbedded.

Gibraltar Rock

Conglomerate pebbles

Rainbow Vista Valley

The "Fire Wave" attraction itself was situated at the lower end of this expanse of red, cross-bedded sandstone. Before walking down to it, though, we spent a leisurely few minutes taking in the wide-open color-country vistas.