Valley of Fire, Feb 5th and 6th

Sunday, Feb 5^th Super Bowl

Woke up at 6 am to another fantastic clear morning. While I took Freya out for her morning abolitions I noticed that the Mountain Sheep were back. Threw Freya back in the coach (without her treats … not too happy mom!) and told Ray to get some pants on and bring his camera. (Don’t want him flashing anyone in his housecoat!)

The sheep were only 25 feet away from Ray this time. What an opportunity. We could see them butting heads and that sounds like a gunshot but every time he tried to get a picture it was too late. There were 5 males and 4 females in this group. How cool was that! His pictures were not as good this time so we just did not post any.

After the sheep moved on we came back in to get dressed. After Ray walked Freya, we were on the road by 8:30 heading into Vegas to pick up Kristi and Kat. Kristi called us that the pick up point had changed because they closed the road in front of their hotel as the Budweiser Clydesdales were coming down the street.

Picture by Kat

We had them take a taxi instead to the Gold Coast Casino and meet us at the Ping Pang Pong Restaurant for Dim Sum. Worked out the best instead of us getting snarled in traffic.

Dim Sum was fantastic. We all ate way too much and thoroughly enjoyed everything. Getting there by 10:30 we were able to get right in. At noon when we left, there was a 20-person line-up.

Ray and I took them the long way back to Valley of Fire through Henderson, showed them Lake Mead where we had camped earlier last week and also stopped at the Red Dune Picnic Site. Back at home by 2:30 Freya was thrilled to see us. Although it was a cloudy afternoon we sat outside for an hour then it was time to come in and start watching the super bowl. I made several appetizers that was our “dinner” as we had all eaten so much earlier. A lovely day. Everyone was pretty tired, especially the girls after having 2 late nights. We were all in bed by 9 pm.

Picture by Kat

Monday, Feb 6^th

Everyone had a pretty good sleep and we all got up a 6:30 am. No sunrise pictures today as it was very cloudy and quite windy. After everyone had a bite to eat we took the girls on a tour through the other campsite and scenic road, then down to the Visitor Centre. Next, we went up White Dome Road to show them all of the trail heads and the colours in the rocks. 

Picture by Kat

The Beehives:

Balancing Rock

Hello ... anyone in there! (picture by Kat)

Kristi and Kat had planned to take the hike down from White Dome to the campsite, a 6-mile hike, but with it being so windy they decided to call it off until tomorrow. Also by that time everyone was hungry. We had planned to have a fire and cook hotdogs/sausage but the wind was still too strong, the frying pan it is. Once everyone was fed and watered, Kristi did what she usually does when she comes “home” went for a nap. Ray spent time teaching Kat how to use his photo editing program with her pictures … she was so impressed with the difference it made. This will keep her busy for many hours here! Two hours later, we woke up Kristi and while I was tending the ribs on the BBQ and had a campfire the girls went on a hike taking Freya to the Rainbow Vista trail. They had fun and were back by 5 pm. Ray made us strawberry margaritas to have before dinner around the campfire. With all of the fresh air, everyone was in bed by 9:30 pm.