Beyond the silver rainbow: Valley of Fire

When I knew last spring that I would go to North America for a longer time, I was looking forward to seeing canyons, arches, deserts and other nature miracles. Browsing the internet, I found a road trip passing through many nature parks in Utah and Arizona (Grand Circle Road). I got extremely obsessed with photos of colorful sandstone formations in very rural areas. The effect those pictures had an on me is difficult to put in words.

So I started to plan, but – as so often in life – plans change. We had nice trips with our international group, I went to Canada and had the road trip with my sister. There simply wasn’t enough time to see everything. In Las Vegas I reserved one day to take a rental car and see one of those miraculous places. But which one?

I heard from many people that Grand Canyon is something ‘you have to see’. The four-hour drive each way didn’t scare me off, but I would rather spend more time than just a few hours. Maybe it will be during the grand circle road trip with my wife someday in the future..:)

Finally I decided to visit the Valley of Fire, some ninety minutes away from Vegas. With an early start, I stayed there almost seven hours, saw more than half the park and took some 800 pictures. Only a few other tourists could witness me shaking my head in disbelieve again and again. It truly was the best day of my autumn (so far).

Let me take you through my day..