The major destinations for today were Nevada's Cathedral Gorge and Valley of Fire state parks. My top priority was Cathedral Gorge. This was also the closest park to Ely, which was my starting point. Valley of Fire was further south, and I felt that if I missed it, it was not a big deal. (I felt like that BEFORE I saw the park.)
I was glad I had fueled up in Ely. As I drove south on US 93, there was a sign which warned that the next gas station was 80 miles away. Where there were mountains, there were clouds coming right down to the ground. This is the second day I saw this. Generally, the sky was overcast.
Cathedral Gorge is beautiful. It's a large canyon of light red/orange rocks, with hoodoos carved by wind erosian. A major section of the park reminded me of pipe organs (which is likely the reason for the name). But there were many intricately carved spires throughout the park. It's not very large (certainly nothing like a national park) and doesn't take much time to walk through.
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Photos were lousy because the sun was not out and the light just was very poor. I still took a large number of photos as I might be able to adjust them somewhat in Photoshop. After visiting most of the areas of the park, hail started coming down extremely fast. Of course, I had my camera with me and was concerned about it being hit with ice pellets. No damage occurred, thankfully.
As I continued to drive south after leaving the park, I went through periods of rain, hail and finally some occasional sun. I passed through some small towns. Then, the mountain scenery came back, complete with lots of twists and turns. I saw wild horses and graphiti on the edge of one of the mountains dating from 1970 (at least according to the graphiti).
As I went further south, I started seeing joshua trees and other desert plants in addition to the standard sagebrush. I think joshua trees are some of the most interesting types of trees. I parked along the road to get pictures and examined one of the trees more closely. The tree seems to be a cross between a palm tree and an evergreen. What look like short palms are thick with a very sharp point at the end. There were other plants that looked like palm trees with a very short trunk. But these too had thick, strong structures with a sharp point at the end.
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As I got to the Valley of Fire state park, I could see it at a distance. The red rock against Nevada's usual dark brown or gray truly makes it look like the valley is on fire. By the time I got to the park, I was very tired. I took quite a few pictures but as usual, lighting wasn't the best. Likewise, the pictures aren't great either. It was a very nice place and if the sun was out, these would make spectacular pictures. There is a large arch on the west side of the park. A sign even points down a road where it is located. I took that road, but wasn't able to see the arch. By then I was getting so tired that I didn't want to really look for it. I've seen it in enough pictures.
My hotel for the night was in Henderson, NV. This was the same hotel I had stayed at a couple of weeks ago, on the way to California. I have never stayed at the same hotel twice on a trip for non-consecutive nights. But, this hotel is one of the nicest hotels I've been in on any trip. It's very new and the staff goes out of their way to please. Breakfast is great, the fitness room is great, and everything about the room is wonderful.
Because I arrived during daylight, I missed the lights of Vegas. However, I had seen them earlier in the trip.
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