Most of the hikes in the Valley of Fire are short, so this allows visitors to see several different rock formations in a day’s visit. There are two main roads in the park with several places to stop on each one. Some stops are photo opportunities and some are hikes as well.

Fire Wave & Seven Wonders Trails

We drove White Domes Road to the Fire Wave and Seven Wonders trail head parking. This is the place to be as the lot was filling up fast. The trail first leads to Fire Wave, which is featured in lots of photos advertising the park.

But don’t stop at Fire Wave as most people do—keep going to see the Seven Wonders, and you will be rewarded with oohs and ahhs around every corner and a narrow canyon to walk through.

White Domes Loop

We left the absolutely overflowing parking at Fire Wave to find the last stop on this road at White Domes to be mostly empty. Hike first, then eat lunch. There were natural stairs down the first part of this trail that were steep and had sand on them. Going slowly helped. The rest of the loop was spent enjoying the scenery. And the parking lot was full when we left.

Rainbow Vista Trail & Fire Canyon Overlook

This afternoon we made our way back down White Domes Road in hopes that the parking lots would now have room, and they did. We took the last spot for Rainbow Vista, but had plenty of room for parking at the next one. Our hike was through the upper part of Fire Canyon, then ended at an overlook at the deeper part of the canyon.

Mouse Tanks

We were getting pretty tired and hungry at this point in the late afternoon, but with our departure tomorrow looming, we made our last stop near the beginning of the White Domes road to hike the Mouse Tanks Trail. This ends at a natural tank, that is a rock basin with standing water in it. Much more water than a mouse would ever use, so I had to look up how it was named. A renegade Paiute named Little Mouse used this water source while hiding from the law in the 1890s. The hike also has many samples of petroglyphs.

Atlatl Rock Campground

Ah, nice showers! Individual rooms at the Atlatl Rock Campground with nice shower heads and plenty of hot water makes for an excellent shower after forgoing this luxury for two nights. This campground has some longer sites with hookups, but once again, I took the last available. We didn’t need the hookups anyway, but later in the summer that would be nice in the heat. Most of the park trails are closed from mid-May to mid-September due to the history of medical calls and search and rescues. In order to keep people safe in the heat, this becomes a drive-through park to look at the rock structures close to the road.

Catnip Takes a Walk

This evening, Catnip decided she wanted to explore our campsite. She was bugging me for her harness, then away we went. She looks good against the red rocks! She tried to catch the birds chirping at her in the bushes, but once again, she was unsuccessful due to her anchor. She chased bugs and lizards, too, and generally sniffed everything.