Valley of Fire Feb 4th

We woke up to some clouds so no going out for sunrise pictures for Ray. We drove down to the entrance and spent an hour on our computers catching up and I managed to get the blog done. Once back at home I did the dishes and swept up the floors while Ray cleaned out the car in preparation for picking up the girls on Sunday. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the sunshine outside and throwing the stick for Freya. She loves this campsite. While I was making dinner, Ray went out to take some evening pictures of the “beehives”. A bunch of funky rock formations. Petrified sand dunes.

Kristi and Kat made it into Vegas with an hour and a half delay coming from Vancouver due to the snow event this morning. Ray and I are excited to pick them up on Sunday, go to Ping Pang Pong for a dim sum lunch (one of our most favorite places to eat) and then back to the campsite to watch the Super Bowl. Ray’s brother emailed that by Saturday morning in Qualicum Beach they had 10 inches with it still snowing! Glad we are missing it!

Saturday, Feb 4th

As the skies were clear this morning, off Ray went for some sunrise pictures. Freya and I stayed home and then took a short walk down the wash for some exercise. Ray was back by 8:00 a.m. ready for breakfast and very happy with some of the pictures he managed to get. His pictures are much better this time here, with 2 more years of experience under his belt, a new photo editing program and a better camera and lens. 

White Domes Road

Sublime Sunrise next three pics.

Rainbow Canyon Morning Montage

Elephant Rock at the entrance to the park.

At 11 am Ray and I decided to take the dog for a walk through the walk-in campsites since they seemed to have cleared out from last night. There were some people from Ontario in a motorhome with a dog that constantly whined every time she saw Freya play with her stick in a site behind us. The dog looked to be somewhat like a small Pitbull type. Ray asked if it was okay for them to meet … they said sure their dog was very friendly. Within seconds their dog was biting Freya in the neck, Ray trying to break them apart got bitten and knocked down over their fire pit. Wow … Poor Ray and Freya. Freya got away with only a small puncture on her lip but Ray has two punctures in his hand, scrapped knees and legs and of course tweaked his back falling down onto the firepit. The only upside is that Ray had a tetanus shot (good for 10 years) 3 years ago, when he was bitten by 2 Pitbulls in Nanaimo protecting Freya and is currently on antibiotics for his gums in his mouth. After making sure his wounds were all clean I bandaged him up with some antibiotic cream and hopefully he will have no further problems. I do not think he needs stitches this time thankfully. Ray had to take some heavy pain medication and go to bed as he is in a lot of pain tweaking his back falling down. Hopefully he will feel better tonight and especially tomorrow since we are picking up the girls. I sure hope the rest of our stay here is uneventful with troubles and only “good times a happening” for the next four days. After everyone was patched up and checked out we finally did our walk and Ray took a picture of “Basset Hound Arch” in the walk-in campsite area.

Well maybe I spoke too soon. Ray and I drove into Overton for a few grocery items and when we came back to the park the road was blocked to the campsite by police and park ranger and a medi helicopter … apparently, a kid fell off some of the rocks and they were going to take him into a hospital in Las Vegas. Poor parents. They are part of a group of about 6 campers, all with kids that had been scrambling over the rocks. Hopefully the kid will be okay. (turned out he had a broken arm and a bruised lung ... would have been fractured ribs if he had been older)

Later when we were sitting outside a couple of young men asked Ray if we had a coffee grinder!!! Apparently, they are pilots of a 6-seater jet Cessna plane that flew into Vegas and were tenting here on their days off and forgot the grinder for their coffee! You never know who you will meet! Of course, we helped them out. They are in the best walk-in campsite up the road from us.