Valley of Fire State Park is a hidden gem that took me by complete surprise. I visited the park on my last day in Las Vegas (before my red-eye flight back home, ugh) and it was the perfect day trip for an outdoor adventure. Located only an hour outside Vegas, this red rock heaven is carved out of beautiful flame-colored stone. These stone formations are great for leisurely hikes and climbing, or even just snapping a couple of fire Instagram pics.

You won’t need more than a day to explore the entirety of the park, unless you plan to camp, which you can do in one of the designated camping areas. I spent around a total of four and a half hours in the park, but you can spend as much or as little time as makes you feel satisfied.

This state park is similar to Joshua Tree National Park in that it is easily accessible by car and is a choose-your-own-adventure—you can drive from one end of the park to the other and stop off at multiple viewpoints. To get the most out of your day, I suggest that you pick a handful of trailheads to stop off at as you make your way down the road. There are plenty of bucket list spots in Valley of Fire State Park to do on your free day in Vegas.

Know Before You Go:

1. The entrance fee is $10 for vehicles with Nevada tags, $15 for out of state tags
2. Beginning in 2023, reservations will be required to enter the park
3. There’s only one visitor center, so take your bathroom break, refill your water bottle, and buy your snacks. They also have some pretty cute souvenirs!

Climb the Beehives

The Beehives were a nice introduction to the park. This stop is right past the entrance and is the first pull off on the main road. This is where the dry mountain landscape transitions into red rock heaven. I love how to road splits the the landscape in two!

I spent quite a bit of time climbing and relaxing in some of the open mouths of the rocks.

Iconic Mouse’s Tank Road

Gorgeous red rocks framing a lonely road. A jagged mountaintop meeting the sun in the distance. Oh yeah, that’s the iconic pic that everyone pins to their Pinterest board.

Everyone wants the perfect shot of Mouse’s Tank Road, but surprisingly, we were alone in our quest to capture it. Overall, the park was pretty quiet, but I was glad there weren’t any crowds to take pictures here. It was just us and our camera, which was a nice reprieve from the chaos of Vegas.

There isn’t a designated pull off area for this view, but here’s a quick guide on how to get the perfect shot:

We had to park at the Rainbow Vista lot, which is about a 5 minute drive from the visitor center. Once you park, you’ll want to walk down the road (going south, back toward the direction of the visitor center) and cross over. You don’t have to walk super far down—a quarter of a mile MAX—but you can walk around until you find the perfect angle. I personally found that the further down I climbed, the more symmetrical the shot was.

Off-Roading to Duck Rock

This is a lesser known and scarcely populated trail off Mouse’s Tank Road (mostly because there is no road access). It’s located between the Firewave Trailhead and the White Domes lot, right at the bend in the road, if you’re looking at a map. There should be a dirt road that’s blocked off to vehicles, but there’s enough space for you to pull over and park at the trailhead.

We came across this trail because we were curious about the gorgeous red rocks that we could see in the distance, so we just said to heck with it, parked the car, and started walking around. The rock formations were truly the most firey red that we’d seen in the whole park, which made this hidden gem all the more exciting. We let our adventurous spirit guide us and veered off the trail to explore the expansive formations. If you’re walking down the trail, we took a left down into the dips and cracks of the rocks.

The path looks like it’s used as either a fire route or for horseback riding, so there’s not a lot of traffic along this trail. Remember to be more aware of your surroundings and the wildlife on a secluded off-trail like this. You should also be mindful your personal safety. Unexpectedly, we spent about an hour exploring this section of the park and got a little overheated, which made for a miserable trek back to the car.

White Domes Loop

The White Domes parking lot is at the very end of Mouse’s Tank road—a little over 5.5 miles from the visitor center.

White Domes was my favorite trail that we visited in the park because it was so dynamic. There’s a rock scramble, desert sand, slot canyons . . . This trail is basically a mini Zion packed into a short mile loop. I had never been through a slot canyon before, and I spent at least twenty minutes pacing back and forth down the pathway.

Because this trail is a loop, there are two trailheads you can take. I suggest taking the one closest to the parking lot (the other is towards where Mouse’s Tank Road meets the lot) so that you don’t have a lot of upward climbing.

The first trek from the parking lot down to the trail is this downhill dune, which then leads into a steep and narrow rock scramble into the valley. Be careful climbing down and make sure you’re wearing good shoes. Once you’re past this part of the trail, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

While those were the four main areas of the park that I explored, there are still so many other awesome stops you can make in the park. Here are a couple of other recommendations:

1. Fire Wave: The fire wave is another one of those iconic spots in the park. The Wave is a series of red and white sandstone stripes that curl around the rocks.
2. Elephant Rock: This is one of those rock formations that you look at and are just like, “Dang, Earth really be doing that.” The rock really does look like an elephant!
3. Atlatl Rock: Visit this spot for a glimpse of some cool petroglyphs carved into the rocks. The art was etched into the stone by Native Americans 2,000 years ago.

I hope you enjoy Valley of Fire as much as I did! Pin this post to find the best trails for your day trip.

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