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

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From the visitor center, we branched off onto the Mouse's Tank Road - the park's biggest scenic side road, and the one which leads into the heart of the most colorful formations in the park. A short way along this road, we stopped and hiked a longer trail - the Mouse's Tank Trail.

Named after some shady character from the late 1800s, the Mouse's Tank Trail is most interesting for the large amount of prehistoric petroglyphs one can see along the way. And, as we walked down the sandy wash that is essentially the route of the trail, it lived up to this billing: etched into the dark, almost black desert varnish of the red sandstone lining the route were many symbols and pictures, some faint and some quite obvious.

courtesy JInnes

Petroglyphs Explanation Sign

Mouse's Tank Trail

Many Petroglyphs

courtesy JInnes

courtesy BConnell

Shapes and Figures

Many Petroglyphs

Sunny day in VoF

Although this trail was longer than the first two trails we'd hiked so far, this one was still quite short. We reached the end (the turnaround point) fifteen minutes after starting out. There was a narrowing of the wash here, with some deep slickrock bowls and potholes - one or two of which were filled with water: the so-called Mouse's Tank.

courtesy PChen

Mouse's Tank

Behind the Tank

Roland and Petroglyphs

Returning back along the sandy trail to the road, we continued north, along the Mouse's Tank Road. After driving through a closed-in side-canyon, the road emerged to a wide vista of an incredibly colorful valley, full of formations and strata in an astonishing variety of colors - from white and yellow right through to purplish. Rainbow Vista, I believe this spot is [appropriately] called.

courtesy BConnell

Mouse's Tank Road

White Domes Loop

We continued along the well-paved - and in some places, interestingly-twisty road, with many abrupt changes in elevation and direction. Eventually we arrived at a dead-end and a large parking area. We had arrived at the White Domes area.

White Domes TH

This was the start of the third of our day's mini-hikes: the White Domes loop trail. After a confusing start, where two signs nearly simultaneously proclaimed "Don't hike here, it's hot!" and "Trailhead, White Domes Loop", we set off, hiking south between two large, smooth light-colored slabs of sandstone. Immediately reaching a low saddle, we began a descent towards a multicolored basin. The strata and landscape became more colorful as we descended.

In the bottom of the basin (reached in at most ten minutes) stood a partial remnant of a stone wall with a bit of old concrete and wooden beams sticking out of it. This apparently was a remnant of a 1966 Burt Lancaster film, part of which was shot here in Valley of Fire.