April 19 - 22, 2018:
It’s a little over an hours ride to Valley of Fire State Park near Overton, Nevada. We had been here before ( November 2013), but didn’t recall much about it, but as we got closer it started to come back to us. We did remember it being a beautiful place and that’s why we decided to return.
As we pull up to the entrance station we see the dreaded “campground full” sign. When we asked for an update, we are told the campground fills every day and we need to pay the daily entrance fee and then just ride around and hopefully find a recently vacated campsite. We know that drill and we are here at an opportune time, about 10:30 AM, when many campers are hopefully leaving, but there seems to be a many others like us also looking for a campsite. We weren’t too worried if we failed to find one here as we had passed a decent looking boondocking site a few miles before the Sate Park. We unhooked the Jeep and rode around through the two campgrounds, the first one was a bust, but at the second one the first site we came to was open. It’s a dry camping site, but a water spigot is close by, there is a dump station, we have full sun and it’s one of the most beautiful campgrounds ever.
 |
| Camping among the red rock splendor |
 |
| If you walk about 40 feet behind the campsite you see this |
Valley of Fire State Park could almost be a National Park, the vast red rock terrain here is truly amazing. As usual we hit the visitors center first and the adjacent, short nature trail. We then go to the “Seven Sisters” rock formations and the original CCC camp cabin area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Fire_State_Park
 |
| View next to the visitor center |
 |
| Balanced rock from the trail |
 |
One of the seven sisters actually looks like a head
|
 |
The CCC built much of the State Park and these were
a few of the cabins constructed during that time |
 |
| A sandy and flowery area below the cabins |
Day # 2 took us to the “Mouses Tank Trail”, the “Rainbow Vista Trail” and finally to the “Fire Wave Trail”. These trails were all short but with great terrain and views.
 |
Everywhere you look along the Mouses Tank Trail you see petroglyphs. Mouse was an Indian in hiding for a murder who hid in this canyon. At trails end there is a natural rock
bowl (Tank) that collects rain water
|
 |
| It's hard to believe they have remained so clear |
 |
The colors and wavy grain in the rocks was spectacular
|
 |
| I felt I could almost reach up and touch that cloud |
 |
| This young woman was putting on quite a show also |
We had decided to ride to the nearest town of Overton, Nevada to visit the “Lost Cities Museum”. I told Twinkles earlier that we had probably gone there on our previous visit and ironically the following morning she noticed she was drinking coffee out of a Lost Cities Coffee Mug.
The ride to Overton, Nevada takes you past the entrance to Lake Meade Recreation Area and a short distance away a huge boondock camping site. If you can’t get a campsite in the State Park, this is the place to go.
There isn’t much to do and see in Overton except for the Lost Cities Museum which was built in 1935 by the CCC as a depository for relics saved from the area to be flooded by Lake Meade with the completion of Boulder Dam, now Hoover Dam. There is a long history of Ancestral Pueblo occupation in this area from about 300 BC to 1150 AD that extended approximately 30 miles along the Muddy River. There are many theories as to why these people left, no one really knows for sure, but it is believed that they mostly assimilated into the Hopi Tribe.
The pueblo ruins were reported by local ranchers who wanted them protected in 1924 and they were promoted as “The Lost Cities” (pure genius) which made national headlines attracting much interest. As a result, the CCC set up camp there in 1933 to do archaeological work and to build a museum. It was critical to document and save as many of the artifacts as possible before the area was flooded.
http://nevadamagazine.com/home/archives/nevadas-lost-city/
 |
The museum built by the CCC in 1935 is a treasure in itself
|
 |
| Museum interior |
 |
The museum is actually built on a pueblo site
|
 |
Photo of a bowl found during in the dig and the same
bowl glued back together on display
|
 |
Reconstructed pueblos behind the museum
|
On our final day we went for a hike on the “White Dome Trail” with vast expanses of colorful sandstone.
 |
A very scenic drive through Valley of Fire
|
 |
| A Mojave Yucca view |
Twinkles and Slick
No comments:
Post a Comment