Despite staying the extra night in Las Vegas, we were switching hotels; Bally's wanted over $300/night for the 2nd night, I guess due to some convention in town. So we packed up all of our gear and loaded the bikes up for our day trip to the Valley of Fire State Park.

I'd ridden through Nevada's oldest State Park before, in 2003, but had stuck to the main road and didn't go into the visitor's center. I was looking forward to remedying both of these! The road to the park was uninspiring; I led us up I-15 from Las Vegas to Highway 169. The latter was fun; 20 or so miles of nothing in between a teensy gas-and-fireworks stop on I-15 and the park entrance. It was the closest to true backcountry Nevada desert that we'd get to on our trip.

Little desert bird in the palm tree at I-15 and Hwy 169.

It heated up more and more as we entered the park, so our stops were fairly short and a little less frequent than if it'd been cooler. Our first stop was at the Beehives, sandstone formations formed from wind and water erosion. The Valley of Fire gets its name from these and similar sandstone monuments -- striking mounds and peaks of former sand dunes, worn down over the past 150 million years.

Peter at the Beehives.

The sandstone really stands out against the region's other mountains.

The road to the visitor's center was open and sweeping, aside from the ubiquitous slow mini-van in front of us. It was a pleasant ride despite the heat, and I took the camera out to get some pictures of Peter with the sandstone.

Hwy 169, west of the visitor's center.

Hwy 169.

The visitor's center was pretty interesting, and air-conditioned, and we were able to cool off a bit by sneaking drinks from our water bottles despite posted admonitions not to. I also picked up a Valley of Fire pin to add to my collection (I usually only get them on Women on Wheels rides, but I liked the pin).

We continued eastward on Hwy 169 through the park, through the Seven Sisters viewing area and towards the east entrance. At the latter, we stopped for a drink of water and got to chatting with a park ranger. She told us that if we weren't pressed for time, we absolutely had to go back to the visitor's center and take a small road leading north behind the building; it would take us to a Rainbow Vista area and even further north to White Domes. Peter and I decided that sounded like a good idea, so we got back on the bikes and headed back to the west.

Some dork with a mesquite bush at Seven Sisters.

One of the Seven Sisters?

I led on the section towards Rainbow Vista, and Peter got some really neat pics of me along the way. Thanks, sweetie!

On the road towards Rainbow Vista.

The ranger didn't lead us astray -- Rainbow Vista is gorgeous with its views of multicolored sandstone. Sadly, it also gave us view of a huge tour bus crammed with people also headed north, so we snapped our photos and got moving so that we'd be in front of the bus.

Rainbow Vista.

The road to White Domes was open, sweepy, and gorgeous. We turned around at this northernmost point to the park (at least by road), and I waved Peter on ahead so that I could take some photos for the Sport-Touring.net calendar. You just can't beat a pretty bike with pretty scenery and a pretty road.

At the intersection of Highways 169 and 168, we turned south on the latter to head back to Las Vegas. On the map, the road is marked as "scenic" and alongside Lake Mead, but I must have remembered the northernmost section from my previous trip, and I was somewhat frustrated to learn that the section we were on very rarely came within sight of the lake. It was still really hot out, and I was starting to worry that I'd picked too long a day ride for our "relaxing day off".

Luckily, Peter had the idea to stop in Echo Bay, the only town along our path (and still 6 miles out of our way) for gas and food. We ate at the Echo Bay Restaurant -- which should give an indication of how many there were in town -- which had a wonderful nautical theme and friendly waitstaff. As always, my mood improved after a nice lunch, and we continued on our way back to the Strip.

One last fun little monkeywrench came in the form of construction along the Highway. Not quite as bad as Alaska Highway contstruction, this was nevertheless a few miles of standing on the pegs over dirt/rocks/gravel/oil spread out over an off-camber one and a half lane road. The fun never ends!

Me waiting for a truck to pass through the first construction area.

Once back at the hotel (the Mirage that night), we opted for paying the bellhop to take our bags upstairs. Well worth the money! We showered and headed to dinner, where there was an hour wait. No problem; that's what blackjack is for! I managed to double my money, which is always a good thing in Vegas. We ate at Fin, the Mirage's really yummy Chinese restaurant. We impressed the waiter by using chopsticks (correctly, too!) and requesting the kung pao extra spicy. We were rewarded with a free dessert of a homemade fortune cookie and a shot of Baileys. *happysigh*

Day's mileage: 157 miles
Day's max speed: 93 mph
Total trip mileage: 1627 miles

Next Day --> September 29: Las Vegas, NV - Bridgeport, CA