Valley of Fire

Well, I got lazy this past Thanksgiving when my parents and younger brother Taylor came to visit for the week and let my mom do all the photo-snapping (she does have the better camera afterall), but I did happen to take some pics of our Saturday morning adventure at Valley of Fire. So I'll start there until I can swipe some Thanksgiving pictures off my mom's blog!

Valley of Fire is about 40 miles north of Las Vegas--towards the Air Force base-- and is literally in the middle of nowhere. It's kind of a "best kept secret" because a lot of locals haven't even heard of it, but it's such an AMAZING place and a great example of how cool the Mojave desert is.

The first section of the park is aptly named the Beehives, because of all these crazy sandstone rock formations that look just like these enormous beehives. The kids (that includes Taylor and Jonathan) had a BLAST climbing up and down the rocks, and nearly giving me a heart attack when Taylor tried to recreate Michael Jackson's infamous baby moment while dangling little Zachy over the edge of a rock (and yes, that is Zachy on top of Taylor's shoulders on top of the top of the rock as they're coming down). Dangerous pre-missionary uncles!!

Zachy is following in the foot steps of NO FEAR.

Jonathan enjoying some sun bathing!


Peekaboo! Lots of nooks and crannies to crawl through.



King of the Mountain! This kid is a human mountain goat...

Mufasa and Simba on Pride Rock!

Lucy, Jon, Taylor and Zach made it to the tippy top of the hive!!

The weather had cooled off a bit earlier in the week, but by the time we were ready to head into the canyons for a hike it was WARM! We did Mouse's Tank Canyon hike which was named after an 1890's outlaw nicknamed "Mouse" who used a natural water-holding tank for his hide-out for several months before he was caught.

It's also pretty amazing because all along the trail (and throughout the park) there are 3,000 year old Indian petroglyphs like this. There are also ancient trees and petrified logs throughout the park, so it's pretty cool to think about the desert's ancient history in dinosaur times.

And finally, my fav: Elephant Rock. This isn't my picture because mine wasn't at a great angle, but it looks just like an elephant carved out of rock! All in all it was a really nice morning, and despite our rush to get back in time for the BYU-Utah game (so BYU could lose), I think everyone enjoyed our little excursion.