It was already hot when we left Las Vegas, and it was really hot when we arrived at Valley of Fire State Park. When we pulled up to Atlatl Rock for a quick picnic lunch, we saw a bit of commotion. Some bighorn sheep were searching for shade and perhaps some water, so lots of people were photographing them (including me, obviously).
Atlatl Rock has a bunch of petroglyphs high up the side of a rock face. Some scorching hot stairs climb up to these marks made by ancient people. I was intrigued with the lichen growing on the rock face as we walked to the stairs. Sadly, some graffiti “artists” have defaced some of the petroglyphs, but they are still spectacular.
After our lunch, we drove on to Arch Rock and parked to look for it. We walked around a rock formation and to a clearing and then looked back and there it was! Had we only crossed the road, we could have seen it. There also were fascinating holes eroded into the rock beneath the arch.
After that, we decided it was too hot to spend too much more time at Valley of Fire, so we’ll have to come back next time we’re in the area. We had to get to Zion National Park, and we knew we would lose an hour when we entered Utah because of time zone differences, so we headed out the east entrance and up to the I-15 for our trip towards St. George, UT and on to Springdale and Zion.
[…] Valley of Fire State Park […]