About three-fourths the distance between Saint George, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada near a town called Overton, is a geological gem of a place named the Valley of Fire State Park. Slight in acreage, most of the Valley of Fire’s most visited sites can be thoroughly enjoyed in a full day’s outing. Most of the hiking trails are short in distance, and the visitor center can be studied in about an hour.
The park derives its name not from the fact that it can get extremely hot in the summer (120 degrees some days), but instead from the red sandstone formations that underlay this entire prehistoric neighborhood. Aged at about 150 million years, give or take a couple of decades, this fascinating ground was home to several species of dinosaur as they unsuccessfully strove to survive the constant shifting of sand dunes and the uplifting and faulting that occurred there.
The Valley of Fire was occupied by human beings between 300 B.C. to around 1150 A.D. The latter occupants were farmers and hunters, while their predecessors tended to be basket maker people.
The ecology of the park is terribly fragile. Hefty fines can be levied on folks who decide to cut their own trail across the sandy terrain. You will spot many types of desert animals here like desert tortoise, hares, jackrabbits, fox and, if you’re lucky, a mountain goat or two. The Valley of Fire truly is a special and awesome place.
Contact the Valley of Fire State park for information on camping and hiking at
702 397-2088 or visit them on the web @ http://parks.nv.gov
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