The Fire Wave in Valley of Fire State Park during a New Moon hike, Nevada

 While Bob was attending the Natural Arch and Bridge Society's Spring 2023 Arch Rally, centered in and around Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, he took advantage of a New Moon Hike event by the park to visit the Fire Wave at sunset and during the evening.

The Fire Wave is a sandstone formation of alternating red and light colored layers.

The park lined the path to the Fire Wave with red LED votive lights and Bob's guessing used the blue LED lights in the photo to highlight the high peak right of center.  The streak in the upper center is an airplane.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Desert bighorn ram near Arch Rock Campground, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

 Bob was looking through video clips from a trip we took back in December 2017 when he found video of a desert bighorn ram walking past the entrance to the Arch Rock Campground in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.  He cropped this frame from the video, since it seemed to show the ram the best.

The bighorn sheep in this park seem to be used to visitors enough at least to not mind being seen by humans.  They sometimes hang around the campground area for a long time.

One of their adaptations of living in the desert is that they can go without water for longer times than other bighorn sheep in wetter areas.  Valley of Fire State Park only averages about 4 inches of rain each year.

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Bob, Photographer at Work Doing Night Photography Under the Big Dipper

 Here's Bob working to get night-time photography shots in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. Rick noticed the Big Dipper over his head and asked him to pose for this shot. It was accomplished by making a long exposure to get the stars and briefly flashing a flashlight on Bob's position. We were camped at the Arch Rock Campground.

Focal length 25.0 mm, ISO 1600, shutter speed 1 second, f8

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Desert bighorn ram at Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

 During our recent visit to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, we saw a small group of desert bighorn rams hanging out in the Beehives Area of the park.  This ram was lounging on top of one of the rock formations chewing his cud.  This photo caught him in mid-chew.  Three other rams were lying low near the base of this rock formation.  Eventually after their cud had been sufficiently masticated, they got up and headed out into the brush to graze on what grasses they could find.

After this ram went back out to graze, Bob examined this formation for arches and found a very unusual sliver of an arch, which you can see in the second photo.  The opening is barely a few inches high.

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Is this arch a "Thing?"

 

On our last day of visiting Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, we hiked the Natural Arch Trail looking for a fallen arch and for an arch that a map that we bought in the park's visitor center called Thing Arch.  The park staff told us that they only name two of the park's arches, Arch Rock in the campground area and Natural Arch, which gave this trail its name, but which collapsed in 2010.  In any case, the map that we referred to showed a Thing Arch across the wash from where the collapsed arch was and we looked for it during our hike.  We think this is the Thing.  It's a fragile looking rock span in Aztec Sandstone.

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Desert bighorn sheep on red sandstone, Valley of Fire, Nevada

During a camping trip to Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, a desert bighorn sheep strolled by the campground where we staying. After we followed it for a while, it joined a herd of about 20 consisting of a mix of females and yearlings. At one point, the male scrambled effortlessly up a red sandstone outcrop to get a better view of the terrain and might have checked for predators in the area, before continuing.

Canon EOS 70D, 250 mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/350 sec., f/11. This image has been cropped a little tighter to improve composition.

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Arch Rock in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada at night

This is Arch Rock in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, taken at night.  We posted a photo of the "backside" of this arch in a recent post, also a night shot.  This photo is from the road side of the arch.

Bob took this photo with a 30 second exposure, while Rick used a military grade flashlight to "paint" the arch and its surrounding formation.  The f/stop was 16 and the ISO was set at 3200.

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The backside of Arch Rock at Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada at night

This is the rather generically-named Arch Rock between the two campground units at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas.  Bob believes that a better name for this arch could be Fire Arch.  We posted a couple of photos of this arch in an earlier post, but we visited it again in December 2017 during a winter break trip.  Unfortunately, too many people were abusing the arch by climbing on it, so now the park prohibits anyone from climbing anywhere near it.

This photo is of the side of the arch away from the road between the campground units and was taken at night by Bob with the settings of f/16, 30 seconds, and ISO 6400 with a zoom lens set at 100 mm on a full frame sensor Canon camera.  Rick used his military grade flashlight to "paint" the arch with light during the exposure.

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Chuckwalla posing at Valley of Fire

A chuckwalla lizard poses for the camera at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. We saw this critter along the trail out to the park's equivalent to the "Wave", pictures of which we posted earlier. We don't know if it was curious about us so that's why it hung around, but it could have been disturbed by the kids pointing him out to their parents and by us looking him over and taking some good photos, but it didn't seem to mind.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

The Fire Wave in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Another look at the feature called The Fire Wave in the Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada.  You can reach it by a short hike from a well-marked trailhead. The rangers referred to it as their version of "The Wave." The hike was only about a mile and it was during spring break, so there were lots of hikers on the trail.  We had to wait our turn to get pictures of the "wave" without any other people in the picture. The outcrops in Valley of Fire consist of a mix of bright red Aztec sandstone and gray and tan limestone.

The Valley of Fire State Park is significant for all the Star Trek fans out there. This was the location where "Star Trek Generations" was filmed. This is the movie where Captain Kirk and Captain Picard meet and have to work together to defeat an evil scientist. At the end, Kirk dies and Picard ends up burying him.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Valley of Fire, Nevada, has its own "wave"

This feature in the Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, is along a short hike from the road. The rangers referred to it as their version of "the wave". Instead of being in a slot canyon, though, this feature is right out in the open, down a slope. The hike was only about a mile and there were lots of people there, we had to wait our turn to get pictures of the "wave" without any other people in the picture. We also got pictures of a chuckwalla lizard near here. The road is off to the right out of view. Other people continued beyond the "wave" and looked at other features. It appears to be sedimentary rock that has been eroded by the wind as it swirls around.

The Valley of Fire State Park is significant for all the Star Trek fans out there. This was the location where "Star Trek Generations" was filmed. This is the movie where Captain Kirk and Captain Picard meet and have to work together to defeat an evil scientist. At the end, Kirk dies and Picard ends up burying him.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Chuck-walla you lookin' at?

A chuckwalla lizard checking out the people along the trail to the feature called the Fire Wave, at Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada. The Fire Wave was actually right behind me as I took this lizard's picture. There was a family up the slope looking down on it and they let us know about its presence. It seemed quite content to stay where it was and allow time for us to take plenty of pictures.  Chuckwalla lizards store fat on their sides so it makes them look "chubby". Other lizards, like the Gila monster, stores fat in its tail. Chuckwallas also can inflate their bodies with air to wedge themselves into a crack in the rock so that predators can't dislodge them.

The Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, is also famous with Star Trek fans. It served as the setting for the planet Veridian III in "Star Trek Generations", the one in which Captain Kirk dies and Captain Picard buries him.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Arch Rock near campground, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park in southern Nevada is a geologists' and photographers' dream.  Among the red sandstone formations are a number of natural arches, including this one called Arch Rock near the park's campground.  In fact, this arch can be seen from the Campground Road at a parking area between the park's two camping units a short distance past the turnoff for Atlatl Rock.  This is not the view you'll get of the arch from the parking area, however.  Bob climbed up to and through the arch and turned around to get this view of it.

And here's a photo of Bob standing under the arch and touching the underside with his tripod to give you an idea of how big it is.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Natural Arch in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park in southern Nevada is a geologists' and photographers' dream.  Among the red sandstone formations are a number of natural arches, including this one near the Beehives area near the western entrance to the park.  Looking like the landing gear on a big helicopter, this buttress type natural arch is very delicate looking and may not last much longer geologically speaking.  It has a span of 10 feet, a height of 8 feet, a thickness of only ten inches, and a width of 22 inches.  The arch is visible from the park road at the left end of a large outcrop.

Update: We visited Valley of Fire State Park the last week of 2017 and I, Bob, looked for this arch, but couldn't find it.  I emailed the state park about this arch after the trip and they responded saying that this arch was between the Beehives and the West Petrified Logs, but it collapsed many years ago, so this arch is gone.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.