We passed through a tip of the state of Arizona to get to Nevada. The road goes through the Virgin River Gorge. Tall mountains on each side of the road make all human structures and vehicles look puny in scale. It is a bit awesome to experience.

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What we didn’t know is that we were about to feast our eyes on a desert beauty called the Valley of Fire State Park. We thought that is was going to be a modest desert scape. Wrong! This is a gem. See that picture of Elephant Rock! We also saw some wildlife. Sure, we got pictures of a bird and some white-tailed antelope squirrels but check out the mountain sheep climbing up and down the red rocks. One of them even got down on the road and said, “Follow me!” Okay, he didn’t really say that but he was a ham. Red was not the only color to adorn the park. Purples, whites, blues and others…most of them in layers of time.

Star Trek fans may recall when Captain T. Kirk, of the Starship Enterprise, finally died in the movie Star Trek Generations. This is the park where that scene was filmed. And Jorge climbed up the fabled stairs.

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At the top one can see several thousand year old petroglyphs. Also, the view is fantastic. The gnarly red rocks and terrain make this park a must go to attraction. So much of it looked as if Disney had placed it there but no. It is real!

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We headed past Las Vegas and found a very big and busy gas station. Jorge counted at least 23 urinals in the bathroom. All the gas pumps looked busy even though the gasoline was far from cheap. Another good day on the road!