Valley of Fire and Lake Mead

I hate to admit to how many years I drove past this place and never took the exit to go and check it out.   In fact it wasn't until a friends daughter was married there and I saw the pictures they took that I realized that WOW, this was a place I wanted to see.
And I am so glad I did.
Let me share some of the many pictures I took while we drove, stopped and gawked.

 The outcroppings of red

Lake Mead, and we were on one end of it.   It's a lot bigger than we were able to see.

Guess what I found, yup, shells.   This is probably a freshwater clam.

There was Elephant Rock, and someone standing there admiring him.





A memorial sign for Sergeant John J. Clark.   You can read about him on this sign.

 

 At the visitor center my eye got caught by this little guy.   He kept pacing back and forth in front of the window.

 So I went outside and he was nice enough to pose for me.

 Self-explanatory...

 There are a few arches through out the park, and you have to look for them a little.   But this one caught my eye and I had fun with it.   In other words, I took a lot of pictures of this one.   Tried moving myself around, using the sky as a backdrop, the other rocks, etc.  

 I loved looking at the striations in the rock, you could see where ancient waters ran. 

 You would be driving along, and wham there to the side would be an outcropping. 

 A geologist could read this rock, but you can see the layers, the deposits of sand, the wearing away the sandstone, on this boulder.

 Atlatl Rock

 This was a challenge for me, I'm scared of heights and it took some strict talk from me to me to make me climb up there. 

 However, I was very grateful for the modern stairs, can you imagine having to go up these steps to the right.  YIKES!
See that yellow stain to the right at the bottom of the picture.  

 Looking down, whooo.

 The petroglyphs were fascinating.  

 Just wish someone could translate.

 Remember that yellow stain in the picture, I did a closeup, OK, so I zoomed in cause I just knew some idiot had been playing with a paint ball gun in the rocks there, but it was a lichen growing in the crack.   There were several patches of this growing in various places.

Here's another arch, I spotted this one on my way down the stairs.   Well I'd stopped to give myself a stiff talking too, otherwise I don't know if I could have walked down again. 

I zoomed in a little.
I am so glad I was finally able to go and see these gorgeous natural wonders.   And if you're ever in the area, take detour off the highway and at least take a drive through there.    You won't be sorry.