Southwest 2021-17: Nevada: Valley of Fire State Park, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and Ryholite

March 24-25, 2021

    Before leaving Kanab, Utah on the next-to-last day of our trip, we decided to head for Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas. Marilyn Googled the campground, and to our amazement there was one site left. We booked it and headed out.

Snow-capped peaks west of Hurricane UT.

Our route from Kanab UT to Red Rock Canyon NV 

took us in and out of Arizona.

    Highway 89 took us south, dipping into Arizona. Soon we were driving through the state-line towns of Colorado City AZ and Hildale UT, once the stronghold of Mormon fundamentalists and Warren Jeffs. Many houses are huge, with multiple wings.

Typical multi-wing Mormon house in fundamentalist Colorado City AZ/Hildale UT--

though much more grandiose than many.

    At Hurricane UT, we turned west to pick up I-15 toward Las Vegas. We passed by St George UT, then reentered Arizona, where the highway goes through the Virgin River Gorge, another beautiful drive. 

Entering the Virgin River Gorge in northwest Arizona.

Virgin River Gorge

    The Virgin River runs between the Beaver Dam Mountains to the north and the Virgin Mountains to the south. It's the border between the colorful, layered rock formations of the Colorado Plateau and the "mountain-and-basin" geography of the Mojave Desert.

Vehicles are dwarfed by the walls of the Virgin River Gorge.

    At Moapa, we took the turn-off to Valley of Fire State Park and its amazing red Aztec limestone rock formations. Ancestral Puebloans lived in the area 2,500 years ago. 

The colors in Valley of Fire are just amazing.

Valley of Fire SP east of Las Vegas.

The amazing Beehive formations are visible from the road. 

Beehive rock formation

Numerous hikes lead to other incredible sights, such as Pink Canyon and the Fire Wave. 

Big horn sheep along road in Valley of Fire State Park.

    On our way out, we were treated to a herd of big horn sheep—our second of the trip!  

    As it was getting late and time to head toward Las Vegas, we promised ourselves to return to take better advantage of the park and headed out. Having reservations does put a damper on some of our meandering. 

    We arrived at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area west of Las Vegas about an hour later. Doug parked the van on our site, which, like the one pictured below, was rather sloped.

Promaster in site next to ours, with similar elevation,

 rather looks like it's flying.

Then Marilyn said she wanted to try the camp host's suggestion to park sideways. Doug drove what seemed to be a mile inside the camp site following Marilyn's signals to go back, forth, up, down, and around, and succeeded in wedging the van in sideways. 

They used large rocks to assist with 

getting the van up onto the blocks. 

Then Marilyn concluded that no matter how many blocks we put under the tires, we'd still be rolling out of bed. So Doug drove another 2 or so miles unwedging the van, drove it straight in, put a couple of blocks under the front wheels, and we had a reasonably level van—and a nice windbreak for the picnic table.

Doug relaxing in our campsite at Red Rock Canyon.

    We mentioned that Marilyn scored the last campsite. After finally settling in, Doug met a gent who had doubled up in another site. That morning he'd been about 30 seconds from securing our site with the camp host when we pushed "reserve." Before leaving the next morning, we helped him move his tent to our site to ensure it'd be his.

We didn't drive through the paid scenic area of Red Rock Canyon, but the view from our campsite was pretty sweet.

    Leaving Red Rock, our destination was the Alabama Hills, bringing us full circle from our first night of the trip five weeks before.

Typical of us, we drove south to go north.

But of course we had to meander our way there. Rather than jumping on 95 and going straight to Death Valley, we took a road Doug had seen on the map that went south, then west, then northwest to the desert town of Pahrump NV and ultimately Beatty, NV.

I don't think I've ever seen as many billboards heading into a town as there are in Pahrump NV. 

And then there are interesting nature signs.

Western deserts are populated by wild burros and horses.

    Road signs warned of wild burros and horses and a $500 fine if one were to feed them. So when we entered Beatty, NV, what did we see a block from downtown? 

But they're so cute! 

    At Beatty, we got gas, knowing it was over a dollar less than in Death Valley and turned west our first rather steep climb of the day, up over the hill and down to the ghost town of Rhyolite. Named for the volcanic rock in the area, Ryholite came into existence in 1904, with the discovery of gold. The town grew to about 4,500 people. It had everything: a school, restaurants, a three-story building, train station, opera house, and all the modern day amenities—electricity, running water, telephones. Then came the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, which led to a recession, panic, and the financial crisis in 1907, and Ryholite died. 

Looking from the cemetery to Ryholite townsite up against the hills.

    We've walked through the town several times. Our destination this time was the cemetery, which Doug had learned of and explored on an early 2020 trip to Death Valley.

Mounds in the foreground repeat row after row into the distance.

The cemetery is eerie, with rows of mounds lined up as far as the eye can see. 

Wood grave marker and fence.

Wooden grave markers either rotted out or had the names worn off by blowing sand. Other sites were outlined with stones or had crosses made of stones.

The stones were perhaps original, perhaps added in later years.

Quite a few mementoes were left by the graves.

We were amazed to see about a dozen recent markers in the cemetery.

    Perhaps one of most famous people whose final resting place is in Rhyolite Cemetery is Mary Elizabeth Madison, AKA Panniment Anne.

Panniment Anne's grave site by a Joshua tree.

Born in Washington, DC, in 1912, her colorful life included several husbands and eight children, four of whom survived. Tuberculosis first took her to Shoshone Hot Springs just south of Death Valley in 1929. She began prospecting nine years later, accompanied in the summers by her youngest

daughter.

Mementoes at Panniment Anne's grave site.

    Pondering the lives of those whose identities were blown away with the wind, we left Rhyolite in time to drive through Death Valley and over the White Mountains to find a campsite in the Alabama Hills before dark.