Sights at Valley of Fire Part 3

Posted on March 19th, 2008 in Interesting, Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

This is the final installment for Valley of Fire State Park. Here are the remaining few stops before I left for Zion National Park. I went to the Visitor Center to take a look at the history of the park. There is some pretty interesting information about Valley of Fire.
First up is the Atlatl Rock (I don’t know how to pronounce it properly. Is it At-la-tal?). This is an outstanding example of ancient Indian rock art or petroglyphs, including a depiction of atlatl, a notched stick used to throw primitive spear. It was said that the atlatl was a predecessor to the bow and arrow.

A staircase is built for us to view the art rock closely. At the top, you can see those petroglyphs on the rock. Pretty interesting.

Next feature is the best in the park- Arch Rock. From the name, you can imagine it to be some sort of a hanging bridge like one of the wall papers in Microsoft Vista. Not far from Atlatl Rock, you’ll be able to see Arch Rock on your left. It’s not easy to notice because the Arch is about 10-15 feet across only. I thought it was quite big like 30-40 feet.

Don’t you agree that the view is simply fabulous? The two-mile scenic loop road provides views of the Valley’s most interesting rock formations.

My final stop was Beehives. Unusual sandstone formations weathered by the eroding forces of wind and water which made them literally looked like giant beehives.

The same goes to this picture. It was near the Beehives but I feel that it looked resembles Sphinx.

In conclusion, although the park is small and the stops at those places are short (unless you really plan to do trail there); Valley of Fire State Park offers amazing sights of rock formations. See them with your own eyes and admire the wonder of nature. I’ll show you more of great nature sights in Zion, Grand Canyon and Death Valley.

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Fire Valley Part 2

Posted on March 16th, 2008 in Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

Continuing on the trip in Valley of Fire, I drove to the next stop know as Rainbow Vista. This place is a favorite photo shooting with a panoramic view of multi-colored sandstone. You can’t really see from the photo below but you are actually looking across over 150 million years of time. The great maze of canyons, domes, ridges and valleys in front of you are carved from sand deposited during the time when the dinosaurs walked the earth. You can actually hike nearer to the formations but I chose not to since I was traveling alone, the weather was quite hot and it wasn’t comfortable hiking on sand trails.

Driving further, you’ll have to take a gravel road to reach Fire Canyon/Silica Dome. The name sounded quite interesting to me and I didn’t expect such an amazing rock formation. From the photo below, you can see a distinct line separating the two rock formations. From this place, you will have an excellent view of the deep red sandstone of Fire Canyon and the unique geological features of Silica Dome. You’ll understand what I mean.

This picture shows a closer shot of the red sandstone on the background and the white yellowish Silica Dome in the foreground. What an amazing view!

Driving all the way to the end of the road would be the White Domes, which is an 11-mile (17.7km) round-trip drive from the Visitor Center. Here lie sandstone formations with brilliant contrasting colors; picnic area and trailhead.

There is this Duck Rock which is a short hike away but I forgot to visit the rock formation. Most of this stops offer great views. You don’t usually spend much time at the stops but I guess when you see it with your own eyes, you will appreciate and admire the beauty of the formations even though it’s just a couple of minutes.
There are more interesting sights in Fire of Valley before I head to Zion National Park which is another heaven on earth.

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Valley of Fire Music Video!

Posted on March 13th, 2008 in Computer & Internet, Entertainment, Interesting, Web Applications by yeehan

Video 1

Video 2

Check out my latest Valley of Fire MTV. It didn’t take me more than 5 minutes to get the whole video ready. There’s this interesting startup known as Animoto. It appear on TechCrunch and I think it’s one of the promising startups. Personally, I would love to come back to this site to create any short videos (30 second video is free), and longer ones cost $3 each or ($30 for an unlimited annual subscription.

Animoto allows you to import photos from Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket or even your desktop. You can then choose your own music from a list of tracks from the site or upload your own. I added those photos from Picasa and then selected the Latin Music. (I love this Latin song!!!). Just click to make video and then I just have to wait for it to match the photos to the music. I created two music videos and as you can see, the two videos gave different feel.

Within minutes, the video is completed and matches the level done by professional video editors. I love to be able to edit videos to such a standard but I guess I’ll just have to make do with this online tool.

What I would hope Animoto can work on is to be able to include descriptions (wordings that moves around) on some scenes in the videos as well. I’m not sure if there’s such function yet. Anyway, additional functions include downloading the video to your computer or uploading directly to YouTube with just a few clicks. User friendly and they are able to understand what features do users want.

This is a cool application and I’m sure they’ll be a big hit. I mean they are big now with over 100,000 users even though they are in private beta. Do try out Animoto and I’m sure you’ll like the it if you are a music video fan who wants to create your own ‘MTV’.

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Sights at Valley of Fire

Posted on March 10th, 2008 in Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

Here are the interesting park features at Valley of Fire State Park. First up upon entering the Park from the East Entrance, you’ll find Elephant Rock which is accessible via a short trail. At the station, you can find mounted maps, information, restrooms and points of interest.

While moving hiking the short trail to Elephant Rock, you can catch a glimpse of the desert view up close. Look at those little plants surviving out in such a hostile desert environment.

Moving on towards the centre of the park, you’ll find Seven Sisters. Here lie fascinating red rock formations which are easily accessible from the road. Picnic areas are provided for a relaxing stop during the tour around the Valley. But I find the place too hot for picnic.

Another attraction not to be missed is the Petroglyph Canyon. There is a short walk to see the ancient Indian drawings on the walls. There are interesting drawings like animals and stars on the wall. The Indian Petroglyphs have existed in this area for more than a very long time.

In the same stop, you’ll also go through the Mouse’s Tank Trail. There is nothing much to see here except a small pond at the end of the trail. I’m not sure why it is known as Mouse’s Tank. You just judge by yourself from the picture.

It’s great to be able to enjoy the view here. The red rock formations are rare to me. There are more to come in the next post.

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Valley of Fire State Park

Posted on March 3rd, 2008 in Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

Being Nevada’s oldest state park, Valley of Fire derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the prehistoric era, over 150 million years ago. There are lots of interesting rock formations which include limestone and conglomerates.

There is an entrance fee of $6 day pass per vehicle. The visitor center provides exhibits on geology, ecology, prehistory and history of the park. It opens daily from 8.30am to 4.30pm.
You can go camping, picnicking and hiking in Valley of Fire. Best time to go is during spring and fall. Winter temperature is about 75 F (24 C). As for summer, it’s not so advisable to go as the temperature is soaring high, usually exceed 100 F (37 C).

What are the park features that attracted me to Valley of Fire? There is a list of interesting rock formations. How I went about Valley of Fire was that I came in from the East Entrance (from Lake Mead) and then I drove to the Visitor Center and up to the White Domes, and then came back down and exited the West Entrance. By entering from East Entrance from Lake Mead, I had to pay additional $5 because I entered Lake Mead Recreation Park. You can avoid that if you enter from the West Entrance and exit the same way.

However, along the scenic drive from Lake Mead, there is a couple of interesting sites as well. First is the nice scenic drive. I’m really amazed by the natural formations in these parks. The road looks kind of deserted although occasionally, you can see cars driving around enjoying their scenic drives. Photos below are before entering Valley of Fire but as you can see, you can feel have that fiery feelings now.

There’s also this Oasis in the middle of the desert. Quite interesting thing is that you’ll always see the same group of people at those stops because they are like you, stopping along the way to check out those spots. There was one guy who joked with me on why I kept trailing him wherever he went. Was it because I wanted his autograph?

Valley of Fire is a Park where you can make most of the trip to the park features without having to walk a long distance. Even if you need to walk, there are only a few spots which require you to walk less than half a mile.

Park features will be appear in the next post.

Download Valley of Fire Brochure here.

More information can be found on the Nevada State Park Official Website.

Here’s a good website with the necessary Valley of Fire information.

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