More hiking and scouting photos in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
This simple photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page (April 13, 2023) and as of this writing has garnered 6801 views and 237 faves.
The rock layers upon which these couples are walking is the feature that forms the well know “Fire Wave” feature in this park.
Stay tuned for even more Valley of Fire and desert photography,
Ken
More scouting and exploration photos in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
Nature is messy and cluttered. Photographers don’t like clutter, even if it is a part of nature. I cropped this photo to remove some of the natural clutter, mostly on the bottom left. There remains some clutter on the bottom left and what about that unkempt looking bush and roots on the pond border? Is it really necessary to clean up a natural scene, to make a more pleasing photo? It depends upon one’s vies of the world and one’s idea of photography and purpose of the photo. Sometimes one may want to show the clutter, sometimes not. Sometimes clutter can’t be avoided.
The way my eyes look in the morning.
More desert scenes to come,
Ken
More photos from scouting and exploring Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, March of 2023.
The number of arches in this area is almost unbelievable. One could spend much time here just photographing arches from inside, outside and through. I’m reminded of the Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now” about clouds and how it could be adapted to describe having seen arches from many sides and still not having seen all aspects of arches.
More next,
Ken
This is a continuation of hiking and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park and nearby areas, Nevada. All of the photos in this post were shot with an iPhone 14 and converted to monochrome.
This “Dark Shelter” is not in Valley of fire. This is along a 4 wheel drive road outside the park.
More from the Nevada desert later,
Ken
This is a continuation of scouting and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada in March of 2023.
The geology here is fascinating. The rocks have interesting variation in texture and color.
If one looks closely, one can just barely pick out hikers on the right side slope of that big dome in the background.
To be continued,
Ken
A continuation of images made during a hike in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada in March of 2023.
There were a few arches in the canyon walls bordering this hiking trail. Small arches are plentiful in this area.
This trail ends at a drop off into a narrow chasm, which at this time of the year contained a pool of water.
Another small arch atop a rock outcrop.
Another small, but still sizable arch along the trail.
Light bouncing around inside some of the smaller arches and holes in the rocks creates interesting color, bringing out the patterns in the rock. This one looks like an eye in a rugged face.
More exploration photos next,
Ken
We returned to an area in Valley of Fire State park to finish a hike we has abandoned a day or so previously.
There were many petroglyphs on the rock faces along the narrow valley that we hiked through.
I only carried my iPhone on this hike, which was not sufficient for adequately capturing petroglyphs higher up on some of the valley walls.
The image above indicates that some petroglyphs have been lost due to erosion of the rock face.
To be continued,
Ken
There are many arches of various sizes all through out Valley of Fire State Park and in this area, in general, where the sandstone has been eroded away over long time intervals of exposure to wind, rain, freezing and thawing. The arches are not on the size of those found in Utah’s Arches National Park, but seemingly more numerous.
Sunlight reflects around inside the arches, creating wonderful lighting on the rock surface.
The arches in this post are found along a short hiking trail and can be spotted by looking up into the canyon walls, which can be spectacular, too.
There is an open area along this trail with many nice cholla cacti. I had to refrain from trying to photograph each one, as I’ve always found these enticing.
We stopped short of completing this hike today, since we wanted to get to an area that we had chosen for sunset photos.
We will revisit this area later,
Ken
My oldest son, also a photo enthusiast and excellent photographer, met me in Snow Canyon on the first morning of my stay. The weather forecast called for considerable rainfall for our location over the next few days, so we began to consider our options. After some discussion and exploration of not too far away areas, we decided it best to move into Nevada in the vicinity of Valley of Fire State Park.
Valley of Fire State Park has two camping areas, one with full hookups for RVs and another with no hook ups, but water available. At the time of our visit, those campgrounds were still on a first come first serve basis. This is a popular destination in the spring, so it is difficult to get a camping spot. We stayed a few miles outside the park on BLM land for the first several night, traveling into the park and into adjacent areas. We made a few passes through the campsites, while in the park, looking for open sites. It was not unusual to see would be campers waiting in line for a campsite to be vacated that could be claimed.
As is our normal practice, we scouted areas for photography and I made many photos with my iPhone, during these outings. So part of this series of blogs will contain mostly those scouting photos.
I got down low to photograph this small cactus, making it look much larger than it is.
Late day sunlight lights up the rocks in Valley of Fire, enhancing the color, shadows and textures.
We spotted these two desert sheep as we were driving. I shot these from the vehicle. That slope is much steeper than this image makes it appear and the soil is loose, making their hooves slip with each step. These animals have a remarkable balance and the ability to navigate steep rugged terrain.
There is an old CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) multiple room crude cabin used by CCC members, who worked in the park during the Great Depression, in the park. The following image is from the larger of the three rooms.
More later,
Ken
I set out from my campsite before sunrise on the first morning after my arrival in Snow Canyon to hike to my chosen location for sunrise photography. It was a crisply cold morning, which I dressed for, but I was soon unzipping my jacket as my body generated heat from the gentle uphill hike.
I stopped at a location near petrified sand dunes, chose a location to set up my camera and waited for sunrise, making a few pre-sunrise images.
I’ve always liked the lighting just before sunrise and I often like those images better than those after the direct sunlight hits the subject.
I made a number of images as the direct rays of the rising sun began to impinge upon the distant canyon walls and add color to the sky.
After seeing the early morning rays touching the uppermost parts of the highest peaks, I began to hike back towards my campsite, looking for other scenes to photograph.
The park has rules requiring visitors to stay on the official trails, which is limiting for photographers. It does not appear that those rules are rigidly enforced. There were numerous footprints and even bike tire tracks in the sand, adding unsightly features in my photos. Sometimes I will edit these out or at least try to mute those via editing, but many times I think the editing introduces undesirable artifacts, so I might not eliminate all such features. It is likely that casual observers will not note the edits, but knowing where the edits are, I can nearly always see unnatural results and would rather not introduce those into my photos.
Until next time,
Ken
