![]() ![]() ![]() Not good for the local plant and wildlife, who grow and hide on the leeward side of rocks. On some trails, there are literally hundreds of these stacks in a relatively small area. It destroys the feeling of being in nature, and turns it into someone else’s private play space. It’s become a thing, and you wind up with stacks and stacks of rocks, everywhere you go. However, unlike you, I also dislike the rock stacking. Admire the view, snap a few shots, then move on! At some point, you ought to let people enjoy the view without you in it. Everyone else is coming to see these rocks. I don’t begrudge letting kids run around, but there’s a whole park full of rocks the kids would have been just as happy to run over that didn’t have the unique “firewave” striations. In my case, it was families and kids, running over the rocks. I circled on around the hill, and discovered that the red-and-pink bands continue, although they’re not quite as dramatic as what you’ll find in the actual Fire Wave formation. That might be Virgin Peak, on the Arizona-Nevada border to the east. Granted, it’s not the photo of the Fire Wave that you’ll see on park brochures, but it’s still pretty interesting.Īnd with a little effort, I managed to line up a shot that also included some snow-capped mountains. I realized that just about everyone was gathering on the rock, but nobody was walking around it, to see it from a different angle.Ĭlimbing down and circling around turned out to be a pretty good idea. They were clearly on a mission to become social media influencers, and therefore decided to spend their day taking a lifetime supply of Instagram photos while ignoring everyone else on the trail.Īfter waiting a few minutes for a chance to take a picture that wasn’t full of millennials, I decided to develop a different strategy. You may experience slightly different people, but trust me, they’ll be there.ĭuring my visit, there was a group of about a half-dozen young adults who had thoughtfully brought a Bluetooth speaker with them, so everyone could enjoy their music. Oh, and those are the people standing in your way of taking a picture. This is the Fire Wave, and it’s pretty impressive. This area is beautiful enough to be an attraction on its own, but if you follow the cairns a bit further… …you climb back up onto a wide-open plateau of slickrock. The trail drops down and passes through this strange little valley as it circles around that hill. Sure, I don’t want people leaving graffiti behind, or vandalizing the park, but seriously… “including stacked rocks”? That counts as vandalism? This was all understandable, to a point, in the interest of managing the crowds and protecting the land. It had been tough to find a parking spot, and I wasn’t allowed to stop along the road to get the photos I wanted to take. I must admit, there were a few things that annoyed me about Valley of Fire. I still expected it to turn north eventually, but instead, it went the other way, circling around to the right, almost directly below the road. … but instead, it headed directly towards this big sandstone hill. I thought it was going to head towards this wide-open space to the north… The Fire Wave trail didn’t go the way I was expecting. On this trip, it looked like a great hiking option - one that I could knock out in an hour or so. Of course, the rock formation existed, but the official trail was only developed back around 2012. The trail was short and steep, and it took us high above the valley and to solitude! We ended up having the whole lake to ourselves that night - what a good surprise! Despite battling some altitude sickness (the first Sierra trip always chews you up and spits you back up again), it was a wonderful weekend in the mountains.I didn’t hike the Fire Wave trail on my previous visit to Valley of Fire, because it didn’t exist. Our only plan was to go as far as we felt comfortable with and set up shop wherever that might be! We were pleasantly surprised to find that the trail was pretty snow-free until you got to Long Lake, and then it was a winter wonderland □ Long Lake was packed with tents (rightly so - such a beautiful area!!), so when we happened upon a side trail to Ruwau Lake, we couldn’t help but try it out. Early last week, we perused permits and found quite a few available permits for Bishop Pass! After such a strong winter, we had no idea what to expect in terms of lingering snow. ![]()
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