Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
We spent the last 3 nights at this amazing park.  It is definitely at the top of the list for the WOW factor.
We had beautiful weather (in the 80's) so did most of our exploring in the morning and walks at night and a lot of reading and relaxing in the afternoon.  It was the most unusual camp ground ever as the sites were just sort of nestled in a valley around the rocks.

You could climb the rocks in some areas.  Some kids and people climbed a lot higher than we did and even at night we could see their flashlights.  The place filled up every day and we were glad that we got there early as there weren't many spots left.

 The flowers looked so pretty with this red sandy backdrop.  This is a Dune Primrose, the larvae of sphinx moth feed on its leaves.

Desert mallow.  These pretty orange flowers were out in full force.

Look - mother nature made these "clay pots" complete with plants!

The park had lots of trails and interesting areas to explore.  This spot was particularly loaded with petroglyphs.  We climbed up nearly 100 stairs to get to this spot and the view along the way and from the top was awesome.
In another spot there were huge big petrified logs.  Hard to imagine that there was once a forest here.

The sheer size of the rocks, plus the amazing color and different formations was almost unbelievable.  We had to keep asking ourselves if we had possibly taken a wrong turn and landed on a different planet.

 We liked this one because it looks like a dog.

 This was our favorite spot on the hike, it was beautiful walking in this little tunnel between the rocks.

This was a really amazing loop trail.  It wasn't really that long but the sand was deep and fine and it gave you a good work out.  Also some spots were really steep and rocky.

It was interesting hiking here as the sand was fine and deep.  In most spots it was beautiful red and in the one above a creamy color.  Some spots, like in the next 3 pictures, the rocks were many colors. 

One night we sat out and watched the nearly full moon rise.  As it rose it cast a shadow on the other side of the little valley we were in.  It was really awesome to see how it lit up the rocks.

We saw lots of antelope ground squirrels and lizards.  This lizard had the longest tail ever, and seemed to have a lot of different colors.

We met some interesting people in the campground as well.  We talked to a retired couple from Wisconsin about their winter travelling.  They have been going to Mexico for the winter for a number of years.  I think it is worth reading up on, it sounded amazing and not as dangerous as we keep hearing about on the news.
Last night we met a young man named Mannie and his family.  As there was no electricity in the park his mom asked if we could turn on our generator as Mannie needs to plug in a machine as part of his breathing treatment for asthma.  I would guess he was about 7 years old and was such a sweet little boy.  Then a lady came over and asked if we would share our spot with them.  The spots are large and have a pad as well as a tent pad.  She was pretty upset as they had driven from ST. George Utah and she had spent the day packing for her family (4 kids) and there were no spots.  We agreed so of course our last night was a little more lively than the other 2, but I am glad they will be able to enjoy their weekend as they took over our spot when we left.
  We also got asked to use our can opener and another guy asked Don if he could cut a piece of wire for him as the other guy told him that we had "everything. "
We also met an interesting son and father who were camping in a homemade tent on top of a metal trailer. They had been to this park before and knew a lot about Utah as well so it was nice to get some pointers.
http://parks.nv.gov/parks/valley-of-fire-state-park/

On the way from Vegas to Valley of Fire the valley was full of joshua trees.  The flowers I took pictures of from Laughlin were from yucca trees (not joshua as I had originally published)  The joshua trees get a similar flower just not as large.


"You do not need a parachute to skydive.  You only need a parachute to skydive twice."