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Exploring Southern Nevada and West Zion
After my fun-filled visit to Las Vegas I started heading east. I had plans to meet up with a photographer friend for a sunset shoot in West Zion.
My first stop was to stay at the Valley of Fire State Park just east of Las Vegas. It’s a very unique park with red sandstone formations. The campground was very nice and had so many Big Horn Sheep hanging out. They have learned to go there to get water. I saw many residents opening the spigots at their site to let the sheep come up and get a drink. You could get quite close to the sheep, but they are definitely still very wild animals. But what a treat to get so close to these beautiful animals.
Such beautiful animals!
I was only able to secure an RV spot in the park for one night. That place is very popular! So if you decide to visit this park, I highly recommend you book in advance by several weeks. Also, you can’t book online 72 hours or less in advance. I didn’t know this. Thankfully there was a very nice park ranger there at the campground that helped me get a spot for that night because of a last-minute cancelation. Because I was only there one night and it was dusk by the time I secured a spot, I was unable to do any night photography. But I did spend the entire next day exploring the park.
My awesome RV spot!
Early the next morning, Maddie and I headed out to explore the park. It was a beautiful day! We walked over to a short trail next to the campground. It had a staircase that takes you up to some awesome petroglyphs.
Lots of steps!
According to this panel, the Big Horn Sheep have been here for a long time!
The hand in this panel looks like it’s giving me the “finger” LOL!
One of the things Maddie has been doing regularly is finding and carrying a stick when we go walking. She will always have a stick to carry wherever we go. So adorable!
I love the nose covered in red sand
After that short hike, I packed up the RV and drove to another trailhead. I chose to do the White Dome Trail Loop. It has the most varied geology along the trail along with beautiful views. It was a popular trail so was difficult to get images without people. But I really enjoyed the hike.
Isn’t she just adorable? What a good girl!
After taking several photos, we found a way to scramble up over this obstacle. It was worth the effort to keep going. The views were amazing. And I found a unique cove that was loaded with hoodoos. They were difficult to photograph because they blended in with the background and were close to the background as well.
The trail ended in a very short, low slot canyon.
After that long hike, the day had really warmed up. So I pulled into a picnic area and Maddie and I took a nice long nap. After waking I took the time to feed both of us before heading out on another trail.
The last hike we went on was the Elephant Rock and Natural Arch loop trail. We hiked this as the sun was setting. I couldn’t believe the sun was setting at 4:30!!!! The Pacific time zone is crazy!!!
This was my favorite hike I took in the park. No one was on the trail which was great. And the terrain was really interesting with little hidden small arches.
Elephant Rock
Since no one was on the trail, I got to let Maddie off leash to run around and relieve some of that puppy energy. We both enjoyed the hike very much.
My beautiful girl Maddie
Since I couldn’t stay at the campground another night, I found a location just 15 minutes away that was popular with boondocking vehicles. It was called Poverty Flats (aptly named!). There were quite a few RV and Vans camping there but it was such a big place that everyone was quite a ways apart from each other. I liked it there so much I stayed a couple of nights.
Poverty Flats
My next stop was Virgin, Utah. The drive there was really pretty. I went from the flat Nevada desert to the beautiful canyons of the Virgin River and Zion. The drop to the bottom of the canyon along the Virgin River was so steep!
I stayed at the Zion River Resort. This is the best voted RV park in Utah and the very best park I’ve stayed at yet. The hot tub was divine! And I met some wonderful people while sharing the hot tub.
Fall was in full swing along the Virgin River while I was there.
I met up with my photographer friend Seth Hamel of Enlighten Photography (https://zion-photography.com). I have taken several photography tours with Seth and he’s an amazing photographer guide. If you visit the Zion area and want to see and photograph out-of-the-way places of Zion and southern Utah, then I highly recommend you take one of his workshops or book a private tour. If you are inexperienced with photography, no worries! He is an excellent and patient teacher.
So Seth picked me up and took me to several locations to shoot the sunset of West Zion. The afternoon was beautiful with just the right amount of clouds. Seth brought along his one-year-old Australian Shepherd dog named Potter. Maddie and Potter were about the same size, and they played together so well! They both played keep away with a stick, and it was fun to watch them chase each other.
Maddie and Potter ran and ran so fast I could hardly get them in a photo! Maddie went right to sleep once we got back home!
It was a real treat to have a large flock of Pinion Jays fly by!
After photographing the views from the plains, Seth drove us up to the top of a mesa that overlooks a very unique canyon with expansive views of West Zion. The conditions were just superb for sunset photography.
I love the pop of fall color from the deciduous trees along the mesa.
What a spectacular view!!!!!
While at this location, Seth helped me fly my drone for the very first time. I was so nervous we would lose it down into that canyon! But thankfully we had no mishaps, and I was able to fly my drone for a short time. The settings need to be adjusted, so what video and photos I did manage to get were not very good quality. I will definitely get things set up before I take it out again. But what a thrill to fly my drone!
My one decent image from my drone.
I’ve had such a wonderful time traveling in my new RV. It’s all I hoped it would be. But it won’t always be great, as my next post will show…….
Stay tuned!!!
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