Fire
1 hour from the Las Vegas strip... well worth the trip. Go north on I15 and follow the road signs.
- J. R. R. Tolkien.
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Todays shot is from the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. This park is so close to Las Vegas, only an hour away, that I thought there will be a huge number of people visiting. But we found a very few people in the park, in fact, most of the parking lots were empty. I am not sure if its the norm or just the case during winter. To me, winter is the best time to visit this park due to the exposure and possibility of flash floods in many of the hiking trails.
This amazing geological formation is at fire wave trail. It’s a highlight of the valley of Fire state park due to its resemblance to the stunning wave rock formation in Arizona. The trail basically reaches an area where suddenly fine dust gives way to beautiful slick rock with amazing patterns in colors of red, pink, white, and every other pastel shade imaginable. One of my favorite time to take photos is just before sunrise as the light is very even and the sky is usually not very overpowering. This shot was framed placing my tripod almost flat on the ground and pointing straight at the main wave formations. I don’t think I used any kind of filters for this image.
Fire Wave during Sunset, Valley Of Fire State Park, Nevada, USA.
Every time I tend to ignore this location thinking I can visit this any time...
Derweze burning gas crater. While drilling for gas in 1971, the rig collapsed, forming a crater with gas leaking from sources underneath. The crater...
– Ernest Hemingway
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Another shot from the beautiful Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas, NV. This location is known as the fire wave and the park authorities have created a wonderful trail here connecting other attractions nearby called the 7 wonders trail. The star attractions on this particular trail are the fire wave rock formation and the pastel slot canyon, both are only a few feet apart and if you are not up to a long hike can be reached from the park road in less than 200 ft of walking. When you to take the effort to reward ratio I think these two spots are pretty high up.
I took this shot just before sunrise, the air was crisp with the winter chill creeping into the desert. I wanted this shot to showcase the details on these wonderful rock formations and the little plant that is growing on one of the crevices in the Slickrock. The sky was blue and cloudless and the time of the day meant we had even lighting throughout the scene. I didn’t use any filters just a straight forward composition in Aperture priority.
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Darvaza / Derweze burning gas crater. While drilling for gas in 1971, the rig collapsed, forming a crater with gas leaking from sources underneath....
Valley of Fire State Park is the oldest state park in Nevada, USA and was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1968. It covers an area of...
- Jean-Paul Sartre.
When I first heard about the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, I couldn’t believe how close it was to the sin city. By the time we had visited Vegas a couple of times, I had made a note to sneak away the next time we were there. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Unforeseen events like hangovers and headaches always seem to interfere with the planned visit to the valley of fire SP. Finally, in the winter of 2018, we decided to make a trip just to the park without stopping at Vegas. It worked, and we finally managed to visit the park.
I am all for researching about the location before you actually visit the place. Still, one challenge with so much planning is that your brain starts to associate the images you see online with the landmarks, and when you get to the location, there is this incredible urge to recreate the photographs you saw online. Often conditions won’t be the same, which will frustrate you and block you from engaging with the area creatively. I have to say I fell into this trap at Valley of Fire. I had seen so many images of the fire wave location online that I was hell-bent on getting a composition I frequently had seen online when I was there. Now this image works when the sky has some clouds, but that was not the case that day, and I, for some reason, was very stubborn about getting the image. Only after coming home, I realized the mistake I made. I had very few pictures at the fire wave location, and most of them didn’t really work. I hope I get another crack at photographing this beautiful landmark at Valley of Fire.
Derweze burning gas crater. While drilling for gas in 1971, the rig collapsed, forming a crater with gas leaking from sources underneath. The crater...
Derweze burning gas crater. While drilling for gas in 1971, the rig collapsed, forming a crater with gas leaking from sources underneath. The crater...
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Fire!
Most notably Andrew Kearns and Sandeep Thomas.