Valley Of Fire, NV

     My uncle is a natural born wanderer and I like to think I inherited that from him. Whenever we go visit, he loves taking us on crazy adventures to places we've never been to or heard of. Mostly hiking through national and state parks, but always wonderful trips. He recently moved his family from NorCal to the Vegas area and immediately began looking for new adventures. When we stopped by for a visit, he was quick to take us to the Valley of Fire Nevada State Park. 

At first, I thought my uncle was exaggerating when he said that the rocks were literally red. When they first started coming into view, I was in awe of how beautiful they were! As you can see from the picture above, they contrasted so well against the blue sky. Pictures didn't do them any justice. As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out and ran to start taking pictures, which if you know me is a miracle because I am an extremely lazy runner. I took somewhere around 600 photos that day. Granted, most of them we duds but it's still a lot of picture taking. 
     My uncle then took me and my cousin on a hike through the rocks. The sand at our feet was fine and, if possible, even redder than the rocks. On the walls were these amazing petroglyphs and they were everywhere. 

     Some idiot named Ike thought it'd be funny to carve his name alongside history. People right? But how cool are they! No one knows what they mean, but everyone loves a mystery. Don't tell anyone, but I took a bag of sand home and put it in a jar to display in my room. I know it's probably illegal, but I couldn't resist.