Valley of Fire

Landscapes can get boring quickly.

Another waterfall, mountain, open plain… eventually they all start to look the same. The Valley of Fire state park 80 km (50 miles) east of Las Vegas is no different.

Granted, it's a great place to photograph a variety of natural sandstone formations and a generally desolate, desert environment. But so is the majority of the American Southwest.

That's not to say it isn't an enjoyable place. But you get a sort of “been there, done that” feeling if you've travelled anywhere else in Nevada, Arizona or Utah.

And that's the problem. Once you've seen the bizarro landscape at Bryce Canyon, you're not satisfied unless the next landscape is more novel than the previous one.

What Valley of Fire does offer is a landscape of sculptured red sandstone. Dedicated in 1935, the state park contains a number of sites, some with rather unique formations.

The photos in this gallery present a brief overview of the park rather than a comprehensive account.