The desert changes color in Valley of Fire
Look closely at the sandstone, leave room for one good walk, and find the human stories behind Nevada’s vivid sandstone country.
Inside this guide
Before you try to fit every named rock into a day, look at a single surface. Follow a pale band until it bends out of sight. Notice where a red patch cuts across finer lines. A photograph can flatten Valley of Fire into a backdrop; a little attention gives the sandstone its depth again.
This Nevada state park makes a rewarding excursion from Las Vegas because a drive, a short walk and a longer trail can reveal different scales of the same landscape. Our suggestion is to choose one walk you genuinely want, then leave room around it. The Fire Wave is a compelling destination. It is also a reason to arrive with enough time to look, rather than another item to complete before the next parking lot.
Two histories in a band of stone
The broad story begins with sand. NASA's account of the valley describes ancient dune fields during the Jurassic Period, followed by faulting, uplift and erosion. Those processes put an old desert into the walls and ridges of the present one. That is already a more interesting way to see the country than treating its color as a special effect.
