Vegas Vacation, Part 5

Day 5, continued - January 2, 2014 - Valley of Fire State Park

I was excited to see what Valley of Fire was like, since I had heard rave reviews from a number of people. Right after paying the $10 entrance fee at a little self pay station, we followed the signs and  took a short hike up to Elephant Rock. (If you look hard, you can see Karamea by the elephant's trunk.)

It turned out that Elephant rock is practically next to the road, but the trail is an attempt to keep people from walking right next to the road. This picture is looking back down the road from where we came into the park. On our trip, there were multiple times that we were reminded of the scenery in the movie "Cars" and this is one of them.  

After driving a bit further, we turned on a side road and came across this picnic are called "The Cabins". We all scattered and did a bit of exploring on our own. The girls checked out the rock cabins and scrambled around on some small outcroppings,

I went on a mini photo safari,

and Mark took a walk with Merrick.

I caught up with them and the three of us hiked up the ridge to see what it looked like beyond this little valley.

 The picnic area where we stopped was called "Seven Sisters"

There were small holes in the side of the cliffs, and inside the holes were piles of stones, so we tried our hand at it while we were there, and added a couple to the collection.

After our lunch break, we drove off to find the visitor center, and then did a driving tour of the rest of the park. It was getting late and the kids were tired from all of the climbing they did earlier in the day. Also, there were a lot more people in this part of the park, so we didn't really feel like dealing with the crowds. These pictures were in an area called White Dunes.

It was so cool to see the different colors in the rock formations. There was a 1.5 hike up to a formation called Fire Wave that I would have loved to do, but we just didn't have time.

Before heading back to the Vegas area, we stopped at the visitor center one more time and Merrick was super happy to be hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa's truck with them while I took the girls on one last potty break.

If you are ever in Las Vegas and need to get away to the outdoors, Valley of Fire should definitely be on your list of places to see! Unless it is 100 degrees outside. I don't know how much fun it would be then. I guess it would still be pretty from an air conditioned car. The weather was ideal for us--sunny and in the mid-60s.

That night, Mark's mom and I grabbed some take out food from the Albertsons that was down the street from the hotel and we all had dinner together in the lobby of our hotel. It was so much better than dealing with the long wait and noise we would have encountered in a restaurant.

The whole trip was so much fun and I don't have many pictures for some of the little fun things we did, like our adventures swimming in the hotel pool almost every night, mealtimes, navigating the roads around Vegas, or hanging out at the hotel.

It was a joy for all of us to be right next door to Mark's brothers and our niece and nephew during this trip, and we hope to be able to take another trip with the whole family again in the future.

Mark and I both gained some confidence in terms of traveling with our kids and I think that we will be trying to take some little vacations within Colorado now that we have experienced some of the joys of breaking away from the everyday with our family. We love our home, and we love all of the things our hometown and region have to offer, but there is just something different and fun about being away and experiencing new things as a family.

Mark and I both loved to travel before we were together and before we had a family, and it is really fun to see our kids as budding travelers, seeking out adventure in the world. As parents, I hope that we can equip them with the skills they need, and the fascination with other places and cultures so that they are able to take off on their own adventures someday and see where life leads them.