If you discount Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada is the ideal place to socially isolate. Miles and miles of empty roads and even emptier landscape between. With most national parks either closed or in an overwhelmed state, the idea was to use the opportunity to check out the infrequently visited Great Basin National Park (and also to escape the heat!). To do so Heather and I planned a road trip loop with a few stops to break up the driving. We left Riverside in late afternoon with the plan to camp at Valley of Fire east of Las Vegas. Despite driving through the area countless times on the way to or from the Colorado Plateau, I had yet to have a chance to explore this state park. We arrived around 9pm, with temperatures still in the mid 90s. After setting up camp we went for a quick night hike down a wash and between fins, checking out some neat erosional caves. Sleep in the heat was a struggle. I got some, but not a whole lot.
In the morning we checked out Atlatl Rock near our campsite, which had a steel staircase leading up to an impressive petroglyph panel. We then drove past the visitor center where a herd of bighorn sheep were loitering in the empty parking lot without care, and then drove up through the gap onto the main scenic drive.
The drive was pretty spectacular with classic undulating pavement meandering across rocks of nearly every imaginable color. Though the scenery was different the park loop reminded me a lot of the layout for Arches National Park. Here and now at least there were nearly zero people in the park. At a nondescript wash we pulled over and set out for a short hike down into Pink Canyon.
At the first turn past the road the wash narrowed to a shallow slot canyon with some excellent sculpting, colors, and textures. The pinks, reds, and oranges were particularly good. I'm certainly a sucker for the textures and took photos every few feet walked. The narrowest section had a sandy floor and flared walls that made for about a hundred feet of kid-friendly "floor is lava" stemming. The shade was greatly appreciated too, even at this early morning hour. We slowly walked only about a quarter mile down the canyon then crossed the slickrock into an ajoining canyon before looping to the road. It was a very short hike but gave a sense for some of the terrain and dense scenic beauty in Valley of Fire.
We drove on to the White Domes trailhead at the end of the road and had a snack in the shade before taking on some kid-friendly slab climbing. Some more nice colors, patterns and reflected canyon light were enjoyed.
On the way out we detoured to Silica Domes, watched the bighorns a bit more near the visitor center, and then went for a short walk to check out the petrified logs. Though still morning the heat of the day was already kicking in and so we continued on our drive to Great Basin. A couple hours later we stopped in the pinon pines at Oak Springs Summit for a lunch stop in some meager shade. On a whim we backtracked the couple miles to a turn-off that said "Oak Springs Summit Trilobite Area." It was a gamble but this ended up being a great little stop to break up the day. I was able to find a road that took us straight to the trilobite area, and happily found that the heads (cephalons) were quite easy to find. Everyone found some ranging in size from pinhead to silver dollar without even digging or splitting and it was a fun little scavenger hunt.
Back on the road it was another 2 hours to the Great Basin visitor center (a free national park? wow this one really is out of the way!), and then nearly an hour further up Snake Creek. We found the last campsite (of four!) in Eagle Peak Campground and set in for the evening. It was a nice spot next to a creek in aspens at 7700 feet. Everyone slept very well that night in the cool temperatures.
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