4/1 Valley of Fire State Park, NV

Valley of Fire SP is one of my favorite places west of the Mississippi.  But, it has gotten harder and harder to get into.  All Nevada State Parks are first-come, first-served, and because this is more than an hour away from other campgrounds, you end up having to get here very early in the morning and then still will have problems finding a spot, particularly one of the larger electric RV spots.  

I found a spot with a ticket on it saying the campers were staying another night, but there was absolutely nothing left on the site, so I asked the camp hosts, and then decided to just park here and see if anyone came back.  I put a new receipt for one night on the post and kept my slides in until about 4 pm.  I was concerned about being evicted, but no one came back, and some neighbors a couple of sites down said they were tenters who left early in the morning.  Whew! 

Just the drive in is pretty. 

My site is way on the right.  This photo looks more crowded than it actually is.  Sites are large and well-spread out. The campground is in a U-shaped area with red hills surrounding it on three sides.

This is a very large state park.  I have been here several times before, but will go out tomorrow to do some exploring and stopping at the visitor center.

My site is backed up against some rocks.  I am going to try to move tomorrow because it is a bit slanted so I feel like I am walking downhill to get to the back! Been visiting with neighbors so we are going to arrange the move in the morning before the new site gets taken by someone else.

A while back I met a man who said there was no way he would ever camp at this campground because of the rocks--like this one.  Would not want to be directly under it in an earthquake.

 Here it is at a distance.

This big one on the left also has potential!  And the little one below and on the right could roll down also. 

The desert is not usually this green.  Normally, it would be brown and the creasote bushes would also be brown, but they have had several rains recently, so the bushes are green and there is even some green grass between them in places. 

And besides the creosote bushes being in bloom, there are other flowers in bloom also.  This is desert chicory.  

And this is birdcage primrose or dune primrose.  It opens at night and closes in the morning. 

 

This is desert globe mallow.  This one is just starting to bloom.

I did not see any bighown sheep at Willow Beach, so I was not sure I would see any here, but this is relatively large group.  Some of them are slightly down the hill and they are spread out, so I could only get photos of a few at a time. 

I think these are all males.  The females also have horns, but they are not as large.  It was hard to get a good view of the anatomy of them all, but the ones I saw were males.  I was told last year that the younger males tend to stick together until they get large enough and strong enough to take on the older, breeding males who have females with them.