What's in Valley of Fire?

I have always wondered about that - what's in Valley of Fire? It's a state park in Nevada - around 1.5 hrs away from the casinos of Las Vegas. In my earlier trips, I never had time or appetite to go this place, but later I heard from many in different forums that it's a magical place. So, this time I kept it in my initial plan, but still toyed with the idea since last day. But as a snow storm moved into Zion with 2-3 inches of forecast in its wings, I drove away from Zion with a smile: at last, I am going to explore what's in Valley of Fire.
It's a truly magical place - the color and formations are like nowhere else and even being so close to Vegas, retains a wild remoteness. Some areas are so breathtaking and jaw-dropping that I was wondering whether given a chance, I can probably spend weeks here - absorbing the beauty, exploring the remote deserts and photographing the unique landscapes. Here are some images from my one-day of shooting which left me hungry for more, but for now, that's all I could do..



Jurassic

This arch is VoF is not really far off the road, but to get this perspective I had to spend more than an hour here. I noticed the unusual formations on the left side of the arch, but they are not really that interesting with an intimate composition. Finally, when I realized that I need to lay down on my belly with my tripod close to the ground and include all of the wall and arch to get the image that I was after, the sweet light on the arch was gone, but some of that remained on the sky. I think the light fits the scen - giving it a surrealistiv look of an ancient Jurassic age. D300/12-24

Beehives

These formations are pure magic - not far away from the entrance of the park. The sky was fantastic and I had to work fast to keep the clouds in the image as I wanted. Taken with a wide angle from very close to the rock to emphasize the contour and shape of the formation, this image almost somewhere between an abstract and landscape. This area gets mobbed by the tourists, but as I was there in off-season, the traffic was not that bad. D300/12-24

15 Mph

Far end of the park, the landscape becomes remote as you can explore many official trails or just pick one through manginicent red rocks. Coming back from such a trail, the winding road caught my attention. Taken around overcast mid-day, the sky was boring and I neglected it altogether. Some PS contrast adjustment was required to bring back the true color and contrast from the pavement. D300/12-24

Painted Desertscape
From a remote corner of the park. I parked my car on a roadside and hiked a few miles on a no-trails zone to discover this beautiful painted desert area. The striped landscape is just awesome to see in person, and I tried some composition to capture that. You can see more from this place in my website. I am not sure which one I like most - but this one is a front-runner. D300/18-200

All other images can be seen in my website

Valley of Fire is more than just a state park outside Las vegas - it has National Park-like grand scenary and wild feeling which is hard to ignore once you been there once. I can't wait to go back there - probably with more time to spend on the remote trails and explore the infinite photographic and wanderlust possibilities in this Nevada desert.