Playground of the gods ...

Cassandra and Ernest came in town last night and we had a lovely dinner and great fun catching up. They brought me some muscadines and thus were excused for not showing up with the required Chick-fil-a biscuits for Steve. So today, Steve and I took a half day at work and decided to embark on an outdoor adventure with Cassandra and Ernest ... so an hour later through nothing but desert wilderness, we arrived at the Valley of Fire ... known as playground of the gods ....

It was shockingly beautiful to get hit with all this red after driving through the muted, neutral desert ... it's just red, right there in the middle.


There are several noted spots in the park that have photo opps or trails and the beehives were the first one we stopped to check out, they were really cool, especially when you realize it is all the work of mother nature through wind and rain and natural erosion.

Whatever did Ernest find?

Winnie the Pooh and his experience getting stuck in rabbit's hole inspired these "holey" photos ..

I mean really, aren't we sort of cute? Even all sweaty and deserty?

As we hit a crossroads to visit the atlatl rock, go straight or turn right ... the decision was to turn right to check out the "scared" logs ... wow ... was that a bad decision ... they fenced in these logs, as if they are going to run away? Cassandra and Ernest stared hard trying to find the beauty ...

Next stop was the atlatl rock ... apparently there is a way to pronouce this, however I just prefer to call it the Atlanta rock (get it, atl atl) ... this was really cool, with huge stairs that took you up for a great view of the valley of fire as well as up close viewing of some of the ancient writing ...

Always on the look out for the newest creature I dedicated myself to follow these tracks ... teeny paw prints and a hoof ... do you know what they belong to?

Cassandra decided to help on the creature hunt and stooped down to see if anyone was home in this burrow ... no one answered.

One the way to Mouse's Tank, we did encounter this cuteness. It was so friendly and ran up to sniff our feet and hung out with us for a bit. He didn't want to come home with me, but at least he was friendly enough to say hello.

So at the end of a 1/2 mile trail was Mouse's Tank. It was a hideout for Moapa Indian that hid out there, he was apparently a little bit of trouble. Water gathers there and stays for months and months, allowing for water during periods when there is no rain (which is more often than not). Steve stepped in for a closer look and to see if he could also hide out.

It was at this point when Ernest decided to initiate a spider man crawl alike contest ... his yoga capabilities made him the clear winner, but the rest of us did try to be all spidey like ...

Spider Ernest

Spider African

With 1/4 mile left to the car and the sun fading fast, a lovely passerby agreed to take a group shot of a most enjoyable day in the desert. Exhaustion quickly changed dinner and dancing to bath and bed, but what a great day!