The
Valley Of Fire
State Park was dedicated in 1935. The Valley
of Fire is Nevada's oldest state park. Its colorful name refers to the spectacular red sandstone formations that
are exposed in
great abundance here.
The multi-shaded red and golden yellow sandstone cliffs and rocks in the
Valley of Fire are part of the
Navajo
Sandstone Formation that is found throughout Southern Nevada and in this part of the Southwest.
The
Navajo Sandstone
is this is the same formation that is found in the
Red Rock Canyon,
along the
North Shore Road
of
Lake Mead
at places like
'Redstone' and in nearby places such as Utah's
Zion National Park
to
name just a few. The bright red
colors in the sandstone is a by product of the minerals in the rock,
principally iron oxides.
This 46,000 acre park state park is located 50 to 55 miles northeast of
Las
Vegas
(depending on the route taken), and just east of the
Overton Arm
of Lake
Mead NRA.
The Valley of Fire is a place of rare and sublime beauty which people have been attracted to for thousands of years. This is evidenced by the large number of
Petroglyphs found in several places throughout
this park.
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The Valley of Fire
was once the bottom of a deep ocean basin that eventually
to become part of a vast desert which existed about 150 to 180 million years ago.
Continued sedimentary deposition
buried once shifting desert sands deep within the earth. Approximately 65 million years
ago Orogenic activity associated with the continental subduction zone along the North American Pacific coast, caused
tremendous faulting, uplifting and shifting of the regions earths crust. This resulted in the tremendous diversity in geological formations found throughout
the Great Basin
and vicinity.
Eventually erosion exposed the remains of that ancient desert
and what we now call the Valley of Fire. Over 250,000 visitors a year see at the Valley of
Fire where the sheer sandstone cliffs made of every possible shade of deep red that the eye
can sense
surround everything.
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 It is
primitive and primitive looking here. There are pink, yellow and red sand dunes with
desert scrub and creosote
bushes colored an unusual green. The green color must be due to the
soil because in many places the shades of green look unusual contrasted
against what those plants look like in other contexts.
Photos:
The pictures on this page are middle: tower of sandstone west of
the Visitors Center, bottom: looking north at Rainbow
Vista. |
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