Las Vegas, Valley of Fire, O (day 2)

Around 9am, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Valley of Fire, which is less than an hour’s drive from Vegas. Just before entrance to the park, we came upon a car parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. I admit that for a second I thought it might be some sort of a scam, but in fact the couple had spotted several bighorn sheep. We watched these rare creatures for a while before continuing into the park.

I was amazed at how diverse the rock formations were. I kept thinking that at some point it would be tedious driving mile after mile through rocks, but in fact they were always different – strange shapes, shifting colors… it was fascinating.

And the petroglyphs are just so weird and cute and interesting. It was a bit cold that day, so we only went for a few short hikes (Petroglyph Canyon / Mouse’s Tank Trail and Atlatl Rock) – the rest of our time was in the car.

That night we saw O, Cirque du Soleil’s water performance. I had thought the tank would be on the stage, that the audience would be below sea level, so to speak, but in fact the pool was below stage. This was our third Cirque du Soleil performance, and as always it was very expensive, but well worth it.