Well, sort of! You’d think that with Sin City only a bus ride away from Los Angeles, I’d have spent more time here, but in all honesty, I needed an invite! So when my pal, Danielle, and her boyfriend, Sam, flew in for a road trip through southern Nevada and Utah, I, along with my pals, Malcolm and Zaida, went to meet them! It just so happened, I had some park-related business to attend out that way.
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Not too far north of the main Strip lies Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument! Proclaimed in 2014, this is one of the nation’s newest national monuments. To the newcomer, it sure doesn’t look like much—it’s been used as a junkyard and a shooting range—but what’s neat about this unit of the national park service is what’s below the surface!
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In 1933, workers digging a quarry unearthed something very surprising: mammoth bones! They named the former owner of these bones “Tule the Baby Mammoth,” and the spirit of Tule grabbed the attention of paleontologists. Over the next thirty years, excavations unearthed over 10,000 Pleistocene fossils, including more mammoths, ground sloths, and the North American lion! It was here at Tule Springs where scientists tried radiocarbon dating for the first time in the USA!
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As of 2018, folks can still wander freely among the old dig sites and marvel at what new discoveries could await below the surface, but since this is a new park, it could take years to decades before a visitor center or interpretive trail could inform visitors about this prehistoric site. For now, with a storm blowing in, we left the mysteries locked in stone.
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Though the clouds darkened over our heads, we still had the faintest hope of catching a sunset at Nevada’s first, and arguably its most stunning, state park: Valley of Fire!
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Driving down into Valley of Fire, an astonishing burst of flame-red rock erupts from the surrounding gray! There are spires and arches, which would have been truly astonishing to the first people to view this place, even under the wet, gray blanket of storm clouds.
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Not to be put off by said blanket, but fully aware of waning daylight, we hustled from the visitor center to the trail of the Fire Wave! Our feet sank into the wet, red sand that wove around a towering cliff of red and black sandstone. After a mere 180 degrees, we came across a flowing carpet of bacon-wrapped slickrock, which was perfect for running, skipping, and general frolic!
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The trail itself was short and scenic, concluding at the signature Fire Wave! This magnificent streaked sandstone was left over after the seas dried up during the Jurassic and the sand dunes hardened. With the texture of taffy, another saltwater product, this petrified wave holds the ebb and flow of past eons in a neat rocky amphitheater where folks can ponder the immensity of time! Whew, just the thought of all that time is overwhelming! Some folks might just prefer to take selfies.
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Our next stop on our tour of Valley of Fire was the White Domes trail. Equally sandy, but somehow harder to walk, this trail took us up over a lip and down into a canyon, surrounded on all sides by red, white, and gold-splotched cliffs!
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Time was not on our side, so we only walked as far as the monument to cinema past, in the shadow of a rock formation that looked like a man on a recliner! Valley of Fire, with its iconic and otherworldly landscapes, has been the backdrop for a number of films, just like Monument Valley! You may recognize some of the titles that are linked to this park: The Good Son; One Million B.C., The Stand, Star Trek Generations, and the famous Mars scenes from Total Recall!
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Our scene was fading quickly out, though, and Danielle wanted to see some petroglyphs before it faded completely to black. The Mouse’s Tank trail seemed like the best place to do that, and we hustled on down the wash, searching for images of bighorn sheep and the mysterious Bat Woman. We found one huge panel of petroglyphs on a black-varnished boulder, but it was getting so dark I could barely see them! As my pals headed back to the car, I clambered up the back of the boulder for a closer look.
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Never climb on petroglyph panels! Even though I used utmost care and did not touch a single petroglyph, as soon as I set foot on the boulder, the ground began to shake, and I heard a familiar crumbling of rocks. Not one, but two Gor Stone Demons, awakened by my transgression, had started pushing their way out of the rocks! They must have been guarding the ancient stories here! I thought about throwing my hat like last time, but would both of them fall for the same trick?! I doubted it. Nothing more to do but run, slide, and scramble away!
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For being made of stone, these giant monsters were fast! They chased me along the wash, breaking off pieces of cliff, but being super careful not to break any petroglyphs. They would surely have pulverized me, when suddenly, out of nowhere, Zaida the rescue poohuahua appeared! Alerted to my cries, she had zipped into the canyon and barked at me to get on her back. Faster than the wind, she shot out of the gorge to safety. The two Gor creatures sank back into their places of repose.
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Now safely back at the car with my friends, I gave Zaida some thanks and a treat and promised never to climb on petroglyphs again. Together, we returned from the darkness to the lights of Las Vegas!
Lessons learned!
