Valley of Fire

I note with some sadness that here in the SW, the furnace days of summer are officially over. To an old desert rat, this usually means that it is time for the annual DK family pilgrimage to [Valley of Fire in Southern Nevada]. I grew up near enough to this red sandstone rock wonderland to fondly recall many family picnics, hikes, and even once as a teenager being coerced into biclycing through it (note: it is simply not possible to bring too much water). Sadly, due to the park's 2007 schedule of campground reconstruction, it looks like we will be foregoing this year's trek ... so I am contenting myself with last year's memories. I thought some of you who are not familiar with this rugged area might enjoy a few brief recollections along with me.


In all my trips to Valley of Fire, I have yet to make it up to the top of Atlatl Rock. The furthest I can go is about half-way up the [stairs]. Anyone who suffers vertigo will understand. A demented engineer designed the stairway as a viciously open affair, no doubt to generate maximum dizziness while gazing through the non-existent stair risers at scenery so strange as to allow no sense of structure, nothing to help anchor your reeling seasickness. The total height you must climb is equivalent to a 4 or 5-story building. Each step up beyond the first platform takes will power that I don't possess. Yet I've seen small children literally run up & down with gleeful abandon (their parents usually standing with me on the first platform)!

An [ Atlatl ] was truly an advanced paleolithic hunting weapon. It worked so well that many societies which perfected its use had no need to take the next step toward modern weaponry -- gunpowder. I'm sure mankind was no less warlike in those hunting societies, but without guns or even swords, their wars were more, shall we say, "manageable".

So at the half-way point, if I make it that far, I sit down, take out my binoculars & try to get a sense of the amazing [petroglyphs] perched on vertical walls far above me. Climbing up there through the rock declivities, as the aluminium ladderless native americans must have done, is not allowed. I do wonder if I will ever be able to get this close up ....

The object just below the bighorn sheep at the top is an atlatl, the object just below that is the dart, with fletching near the right end of the dart. This rock art site at Valley of Fire may be greater than 1500 yrs in age & is one of the best, most realistic prehistoric renderings of an atlatl in North America. Many other objects depicted & their meanings remain unidentifiable.

I've done The Mouse's Tank hike many times. What is The Tank, why was it more like Mouse's Trap, and who is this Mouse character? See the "tank" & read the story [here].


OK, here is the payoff, if you've made it this far:

DK Valley of Fire photo from 2006

I must have "Rocks in My Head !!"

I am resting because this was an

"Easy Up, Hard Down" hike.

Without a trusty walking stick,

if it had been any steeper,

I would've had to slide back down

on my butt.

And here's how the Deputy Dawg Editor occupied himself while I was up on the rocks.

Note from Deputy Dawg himself : why do my humans think this is fun? my astroturf bed and rock pillow sucked!


I hope this was bearable. Thanks for hanging with me during with my learning curve. Things look very different in Draft than when I Post. Any ideas why?

** Click on the post title for Cat Stevens' "Hard Headed Woman" **