The Trail at the End of the Road: the White Domes of the Valley of Fire State Park

 

 

Date: December 28, 2024

Place:Valley of Fire State Park, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.486245, -114.532956

Length: 1.1 miles

Level: moderate

 

 

The Valley of Fire State Park was one of our destinations on our winter of 2020 family vacation in the Las Vegas Area. Because of it was more distant than our other destinations, we had dedicated only one day to explore it, and into this one day we tried to cram as many hikes and sightseeing as we could. After hiking the Mouse's Tank Trail, the Rainbow Vista Trail and The Fire Wave with and added loop trail we still had enough daylight left for another short hike, and we decided to go to the end of the park's road and explore a bit on the White Domes Trail.

Our hike as captured by my GPS

The rock wren waiting at the parking lot became almost a cliche - sure enough, the bird was waiting for us as we got our of the car in the White Domes parking area. 

Rock Wren

The White Domes are a formation of white Aztec sandstone, formed from giant dunes that dominated the area in the Jurassic era - said the information sign by the trailhead. The shaping of the domes was caused by erosion and weathering. The sun was already far on the west when we arrived and the late afternoon lighting gave the place a serene and somewhat eerie feel. 

Not having time to do any long exploration of the area, we simply followed the loop trail illustrated on the information sign. We started by descending the steep sand slope between two of the massive dome rocks. 

A few plants grew at the bottom of the cliffs, mostly on the west side of the sandy path. Prominent among these plants were Mohave yucca that looked very healthy and happy. 

The sandy path between the White Domes was already completely shaded - the sun was too low in the west and I wondered how much we'd get to see. The hilltops were illuminated still.

I admire pretty and/or interesting rocks and often see familiar shapes in them. This one in the photo below reminded me of a whale, or a submarine. 

At the bottom of the sandy slope we wondered around looking at the rocks and other interesting things. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people along this trail with us, enough to make it challenging to take people free shots. 

Naturally, I focused on the plants too. I found some more of the Utah mortonia there, the same strange plant that I saw earlier on the trail of The Fire Wave. 

Utah Mortonia, Mortonia utahensis

My attention was drawn to the remains of what looked like a historic structure. A sign next to it revealed that the relic was actually fairly recent - it was what's left of a movie set from 1965. 

Remains from the set of the movie "The Professionals" 

The unique geology of the Valley of Fire attracted not only tourists and hikers but also film makers. According to the information sign, over 45 movies or television series were filmed within the park's boundaries, some of them in the very locale we were at, the White Domes.

After enough exploration of the old movie set area we moved westward into the shallow wash where the trail continued.

The wash didn't stay shallow for long: the sandstone walls rose high above the wash bed and it looked like we were about to enter a very narrow passage that would allow two way traffic only at a very close body proximity.

On normal days that wouldn't have been too much of a problem but we were there at the height of the pandemic and people were wary of being too close to other people. We therefore, waited patiently until the narrows were vacant before making our own passage through.

The narrows were not very long and as much as we enjoyed sliding sideways between the stone walls, we soon were out in the open again.

Out of the narrows the trail continued in the wash a little bit, then took a turn to the north. We shared the trail with quite a few other hikers, some of whom enjoyed rock climbing as well. 

The way back north didn't feature uniquely spectacular formations but it was rich with pretty sights nonetheless, including this colorful layered rock in the photo below.

The western arm of the loop trail on which we were going north ascended mildly between domes of the white sandstone and rugged buttes and protrusions of the red sandstone. 

In parts we walked on sand and in other parts we climbed rocky steps, going from one colorful layer of rock to another. Pappa Quail and the chikas were quick and I didn't linger too much behind to try and figure out the continuation of the rock layers between different monuments. 

I did pay attention to the special features as they appeared on my path, such as the arches and holes in the sandstone face, caused by erosion and weathering. 

There were places where the trail cut through more open areas with wide fields of sand dotted by shrubs. Some of the hikers were checking out the rock monuments more closely, regardless of the diminishing daylight. 

One of the last rock features we saw before completing the hike was an arch in the slope of one of the white domes. The arch was large enough for a person to go through and some people did, in fact, get up there and went through the arch. 

Ascending the west arm of the loop trail was on a very mild slope so it was almost a surprise when we reached the crest and found out how high we really were. 

I loved the illumination patterns created by the light shining through the small holes in the cloud cover, especially when the light shone a single rock monument amidst a bunch of shaded features.  

The trail continued north past the staging area in a mild ascending slope. My family was already around the white dome and out of my view - I assumed they had found the way down to the road. 

Past the white dome was indeed the trail down to the road, but there were also more erosion holes in the pink layer behind it. 

After descending I turned around and looked bak and there I saw him - the rock man, his giant red head rising from the pink layer, smiling contently at the red dome before him. 

A short walk along the road brought us back to the parking lot. We had finished our last hike of the day, and the last I'd do in the Valley of Fire for a long while. Since we still had some daylight time, we drove off to check out another monument with petroglyphs on the other side of the park. That one was just a short walk and a climb up some metal stairs to the rock canvas with the petroglyphs, but on the way there we got to see the bighorn sheep again. 

Bighorn Ram

This time it was a small herd, made entirely of rams. They crossed the road nonchalantly completely uncaring about the humans in the wheeled metal box that were trying to get through. Not that we minded of course. We loved seeing these magnificent animals. 

It wasn't a rock wren that waited for us in the parking area of the petroglyph monument, but a Say's phoebe. Even clichés can vary. 

Say's Phoebe

Two years later I wend back to the Valley of Fire on a road trip that I did with the same youth that I took to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in the summer of 2020. This time our destination was the canyons in Utah, and I thought it would be nice to give the kids a preview of the geology in theValley of Fire. That second trip however, was in July of 2022, and the Valley of Fire was true to its name - it was so hot there that many of the trails, including that of The Fire Wave, were closed for risk of a heat stroke. We had to settle for some time in the air-conditioned visitor center and sightseeing from the car window. I do hope to get back there again when the temperatures are milder and with more time to explore. Hopefully soon. 

 

 

The Fault Hike of the Keystone Thrust Trail at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Rainbow Mountains

Date: December 31, 2020

Place: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.173473, -115.477441

Length: 3.7 miles 

Level: moderate

When we put Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on our winter of 2020 family trip itinerary we didn't plan to to be there more than one day. We went there on the second day of our trip and hiked along the bottom of the Calico Hills and then hiked up to the top of the hills on the Calico Tanks Trail. We left the park with its entire northwestern part unexplored, and three days later when the question came up of where to go next, we chose to return to Red Rock Canyon NCA and hike in that part of the park which we haven't yet seen from up close. It was December 31 already, the last full day we'd have on this trip having planned to return home on New Year's Day. Considering the timed entry policy of the park during the pandemic time and the fact that the park's road was a one-way road, we needed to plan ahead the trails we wanted to hike. We agreed on hiking two to three short hikes, and the first of them was the Keystone Thrust Trail, which was the first to come up on the road past the Calico Hills. 

The Keystone Thrust Trail extends northward from the trailhead along one of the low ridges that extend below La Madre Mountains north of the park.

I couldn't find any sign post describing what the Keystone Thrust was, or what were the features we would expect to see on this hike. I did hope we'd see some birds because I knew that'll make my family birders very happy. As for me, I was happy to simply be outdoors, hiking in the desert. While Pappa Quail and the elder chika assembled their photography gear I noted the Turtlehead Mountain on the east, above where the Calico Hills were, obscured from our sight.

Turtlehead Mountain

A thick blanket of clouds hanged low from the sky, as if today came directly after three days ago, when we visited this park last. A thin line of sunlight shone from below the clouds on the southeastern horizon.

On the north however, there were patches of blue sky and the clouds were white and thin. 

The first part of the trail was inside a dry, wide wash. We walked on the wash bed gravel, our footfall sounding loud with the pebbles' displacement. Here too it wasn't apparent that a long time drought going on - the plants that grew inside the wash looked pretty happy and healthy.

Soon the trail exited the wash bed and rose up on a low ridge. Due north, we were facing directly the southern slopes of La Madre Mountains and the beautiful rock layers they had.

Keystone Thrust Trail

I looked behind me toward the Rainbow Mountains. The partially clouded sky played a beautiful illumination effect on the steep slopes. I used my favorite photo of the range from this view point as the header of this post.

Rainbow Mountains

We continued north towards the La Madre Mountains. Still no sign of what the Keystone Thrust might be. The weather was lovely now. The sun was shining on us but the air was nice and cool. We walked uphill, but the slope was pretty mild, and we made good progress. 

We came to the junction with a trail spur that was marked on the map as the Keystone Thrust. It would have been nice to have had the information about the place before hand, but we enjoyed the view nonetheless, even without knowing its significance at the time. I read about it later. 

We took the trail spur down to the layer of red Aztec sandstone. A sole pinyon pine tree stood over the trail and I lingered behind a bit to take a closer look at this tree. 

Pappa Quail also got interested in the tree, or more like it, in the bird that was sitting in the tree. It was the first bird we saw on this hike and I hope we'd get to see some more. 

Woodhouse's Scrub Jay

The photo below shows nicely the seem between the red Aztec sandstone, and the grayish limestone layer that's on top. In a normal geological rock layering, the older rock is lies below the younger rock. In this case, the lower sandstone is about 180 million years old while the higher limestone layer is older than 500 million years. The line between the layers is a geological fault through which the older limestone was thrusted up, higher than the younger sandstone. That, is the Keystone Thrust. 

I look at my photos now and understand the geological story behind them, at least to the basic level. At the time we were there, like I've mentioned above, I had no idea what I was looking at and no geological knowledge to interpret it myself. All I did was enjoy the views and the beautiful day in the desert. 

I was already familiar with the local plant community within Red Rock Canyon NCA. I enjoyed seeing them in the bright sunlight now, too. 

Mohave Agave, Agave utahensis

We also saw there our next bird of the hike - the very common dark-eyed junco. It is interesting because we usually see this bird in forested areas, and not in open desert landscapes. 

Dark-eyed Junco

The trail spur ended where the little wash it followed dropped into a deep canyon. Below us the red Aztec sandstone changed to the white sandstone. Over everything was the older limestone, and beyond the canyon the entire valley of Red Rock Canyon NCA opened up in a wide, magnificent view. It was nice to see all of that in the bright sunlight illumination.

 The view to the Rainbow Mountains was very lovely too. The desert expanse is very impressive, and looks much larger than a similar expanse that has vegetation cover.

 

We stayed there for a little bit, snacking, and looking around. I spotted a couple of recently bloomed agave that still had their high inflorescence stalk intact.

After some time we turned around and headed back up the spur trail to the main Keystone Thrust Trail. I noted again the nice contrast between the red layer of the Aztec Sandstone and the gray limestone, without knowing then what was the geological phenomenon I was looking at.

Pinyon Pine

Back on the main trail we continued northward towards the La Madre Mountains. Ahead of us loomed a round hill and the trail took us toward it. 

This hike was apparently a hike of large views and quiet desert scenes. The younger chika fell behind, lost in her own thoughts, and not looking around much. Every now and then I would wait for her and try to engage her in conversation. It would work for a little bit, but then I'd get distracted by one natural feature or another, and my chika would dive into her own internal world once more. 

One of the things that caught my attention was a glimpse of white and red sandstone hills, just like the Calico Hills, west of where we were below tyhe Rainbow Mountains. 

I took a magnified photo of those hills - they did look like they were made of the Aztec Sandstone formation, but they were not a continuation of the Calico Hills. 

Other interesting geology was right below our feet' like these mosaic rocks strewn right at the trail. These mosaic rocks are conglomerate - smaller stones of various sources that were pressed together with fine grained filler soil and formed the mosaic looking rock.

Trees were much more scarce in on the ridge, out in the open. Here and there however, were a few junipers, most of them looking fine and healthy. I had no way of telling why in this particular spot the conditions were good for the juniper to thrive, but a few yards away they were not sufficient.

Juniper

The trail ended unceremoniously not far below the steep cliffs of the La Madre Mountains. There was no sign there saying 'Tail's End', the trail simply vanished.

North End of the Keystone Thrust Trail

There seemed to be some makeshift trails leading into the vegetation and I wondered if people simply wandered off trail to explore the area some more. Another time I might have done so myself but there were other trails we wanted to hike that day so we turned around and started back on the same way we came up on.

Desert Scrub

Looking south, we had a nice view of the round hill we were going by just minutes ago. Above it the clouds on the southeast were breaking up into fragments. More and more sunlight was pouring into the valley below.

The way back was quick. We didn't stop for any break again, and took only brief hydration pauses when needed. The Rainbow Mountain Ridge was growing larger as we moved towards it.

Keystone Thrust Trail

My general impression was that most of the vegetation in Red Rock Canyon NCA didn't suffer much or at all from the prolonged drought that the southwest states were experiencing. Still, there were plants that were clearly unhappy  with their water allocation, like the cottontop cactus in the photo below. Although it might have been miserable fore different reasons, I don't know.

From the higher part of the trail, before we descended, we had a nice view of the northwest tip of the Calico Hills, where we hiked three days before. Most of the red sandstone was hidden from our view behind the white sandstone mass.

While the clouds were breaking up on the southeast, they were now gathering over our heads instead. All most as soon as we noticed the darkening sky the wind picked up and the air chilled. Within seconds, it started raining. Not a hard or very intense rain, but enough so that we had to tuck away our cameras. With the wind whipping the rain into our faces, this part of the hike became unpleasant. We huddled in our jackets and pulled our hats tight, and galloped down the trail. Needless to say, we didn't go again onto the trail spur of the Keystone Thrust.

A Very Local Rain, view north

By the time we reached the south end of the trail and the gravel wash bed, the rain had stopped. The wind calmed a bit, but remained breezy for a while after we concluded this hike.

The last geological feature I noted before going to the parking lot was the white sandstone rocks at the side of the wash that were dotted with iron-rich nuggets, just like we saw on a much larger scale up on the Calico Hills. 

Spotted Rock

In the car we discussed our next move. We were all ready for lunch but we weren't sure about the weather. Eventually we decided to go to our next planned trailhead where there was a picnic area, and eat there. After that, we would see if the weather improved enough to hike the Lost Creek Trail and the Petroglyph Wall Trail that started there.