May 13th 2021- Las Vegas NV and Valley of Fire State Park.
We started out the day with a visit to the pool, as this would be our last day/night at the Venetian Casino and resort. Up early as usual, coffee filled, we did find a waitress and pool ready. Thank you Venetian for opening up the pool early. We lounged in the water seats for quite sometime before moving to the deeper pools for an actual swim. Then it was off on an adventure to The Valley of Fire State Park.
Valley of Fire is about a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, and although Red Rock Canyon is closer, I was informed that Valley of Fire is more breathtaking with it's red Aztec sandstone nestled in the tan and gray limestone. So off we went.
We saw a whole lot of roads that look like this along the way.
Almost to the park.
The landscape was already beginning to look a little different and then we saw these guys. Two Big Horned sheep stood unaffected by our gauking at the side of the road.
Perhaps this interaction is a "norm" for the area, but I was impressed! I have never seen such an animal in the wild.
After our quick visit with the sheep we entered the State park around the corner and WOW!!!!
INCREDIBLE!
Valley of Fire does have a $10 admission fee (if Nevada resident) and $15- for non. We were prepared to pay the $15- but when asked again if we were Nevada residence (wink wink) we were charged $10- (please do not get this guy in trouble) Just for the record I would have totally paid an addition $5 maybe even $10 extra to see this place. I think this was my favorite park of the entire vacation. This place is AMAZING! Shortly down the road from the west park entrance we stopped at a little pull off called The Beehive. There I encountered my 1st desert lizard.
and some of these amazing red rocks.
The Beehive likely named for its multiple holes and small canyons was the perfect place to get up close and personal with the "fire" rock formations.
The rocks look like they could easily break off like sandy dust particles, but they are really strong and hardened with time. I was able to climb up on these and get a great view. Like a natural playground I explored the crevices as a 5 yr old child. If my body would only cooperate.
Another lizard enjoying the rocks.
The landscape is so interesting and foreign and surreal. So "out of this world" Total Recall and Star Trek were among some of the movies filmed here. Con Air, Casino and The Professionals were also a few movies that were shot in this location.
Ohhhhhh! I caught a picture of that little animal I was trying to name yesterday. In the picture he looks like a tiny squirrel.
The landscape was also the backdrop for several Westerns over the years. Amazingly beautiful.
Another lizard...
We next went to the visitor center. In addition to a store, there was a museum and ton's of information about the area. Below is an example of the native American wall drawings located on the park property. We did not hike out to them. (Petroglyphs)
Mark was interested in finding some of the movies left over building sets.
There is not a whole lot of things to say about the landscapes except that they are simply incredible. I took a ton of pictures. I'm sure some people would think, what is the big deal, but this NYer has never seen such beautiful colors.
Even with such little green, where there is some it pops and draws you into this beautiful desert flower.
We arrived at the location where one of Mark's movie sets was located. "The Professionals" He wanted to hike to it. Information reported 3/4s of a mile. No big deal right?
WRONG. The trail started with an uphill climb of soft deep sand, and the temperature was over 100 degrees. Not humid BUT HOT!!!! So we started up the trail and it was not to long before we both realized that we are way to out of shape and far from able to hike any of these trails. Only after a few steps we were both huffing and puffing. Mark announced that he was going to make it to the top of the hill (and it really was a hill, the problem was it was deep sand that slowed and increased the intensity of the walk.) Mark had hoped to reach the crest of the hill and was hoping to view the movie set's left over building. Once he got to the top, took a look and decided NOPE, not gonna happen. Hiking in the desert is no joke, and neither of us are as healthy, (smokers and overweight) as we should be. Rather not take the risk. We are not allowed to die on a random trail in the desert on vacation. After this small hike to nowhere, we could still see our car in the parking lot distance, we decided to head back to Las Vegas.
Back at the hotel we freshen up and prepared for a last Las Vegas dinner. Then we headed down to play some machines. We had a few cocktails as we enjoyed gaming and feeling pretty great, but hungry. We actually had an incident with one of the dining experiences. I got our name for a table at the Black Tap, famous for burgers. I was given a table outside. Initially it was not an issue, but as she sun moved I was unable to get the umbrella to cover us from the heat, and the table was so wiggly I had to add a few dozen napkins to the leg. While I was trying to move the table to get out of the sun, a man from the streets started asking me for food or money. I asked to be moved two times, and we were never addressed and all of my complaints were dismissed. So we left. This was the only bad experience we have ever had at the Venetian.
So still hungry...we went to the Grand Lux Cafe and the meal was amazing.
We certainly had some great food while we were here. Our last evening was well spent. After dinner we played a few more games, my now favorite is Willie Wonka and Mark settled out his bill. 100% free. He was also given an addition 160 free play, which we dumped into the very same machine we started with Farmville. Bed early as we head into the deep desert tomorrow. Its off to Death Valley. TTFN
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