Valley of Fire

 Road into Valley of Fire State Park

On Wendsday of the painting trip to Red Rock Canyon area, we drove north of Las Vegas, about 55 miles, and discoverd the stunning beauty of the Valley of Fire State Park.  The day was slightly overcast, and cool, but still pleasant.  Scattered showers were also in the forecast, but we still had plans to paint.  

 One of the numerous arch rocks that can be seen in the Valley of Fire area.

Can you see the dog?  This large dog looking formation oversees the Arch Rock campground area.

 Petroglyphs in the Atlatl Rock Picnic area.  Because it was raining off and on the day we were there, we stopped in this campground area, and were glad to have the roof over our heads, when the rain started coming down.  Both Terry d Chacon and I settled in to get a painting done, of the vista from this area, but soon the peace and quite was disrupted by multiple bus loads of tourists who did not seem to have a problem sitting down on the picnic table were were painting at, despite many other vacant picnic table.  Strange, but never the less we both got a painting done.

Terry and I painting before the busloads of tourists arrived.

"Atlatl Rock Vista" 6x12 Plein air Pastel.


After we each completed our paintings , we decided to check out the Visitors center, and then to find a place to have our picnic lunch.  I knew we wanted to paint somewhere along the Rainbow Rocks area, but because there were still a few showers, we ended up at the end of the  road, at the "White Dome Rocks" area.  Here we had a great picnic lunch and decided that the vista from our picnic area was where we would paint.  

White Dome Rock formations

Vista from White Dome picnic area.  

The distant mountains were so beautiful. and all of the different red rock formations were fascinating.  We both had set up our easles and started to paint when lo and behold it started to get quite busy around us.  We noticed two CHP cars drive up, then a couple of vans with a number of people, who  brought out  picnic gear for what it looked like a large group.  We soon found out, they were part of a film crew, that were shooting a TV episode, of a program called "Shut up and drive"  for the SPEED channel  .  The crew were all very friendly and we had fun listening to their lunch chatter.  

When all the crew arrived for their lunch break, we were introduced to the two stars of the show, Townsend Bell and Justin Bell (not related to each other).  Then all of a sudden Townsend jumped in front of Terry and took off his shirt.  Justin was taking a photo of this while it happend, and laughed about it, saying they liked to have funny skits to add to the show.  So who knows, Terry might be in the show, looking like she is painting Townsend Bell.  Everyone had a good laugh, but Terry just kept on painting, not to be sidetracked with the happening going on around her.  

Shortly after the episode with Terry and the race car drivers, two guys came up to me and asked if they could interview me while I painted.  They were from Germany, and were making a video of their travels and what people had to say, in the areas they were exploring,.  So here I am getting interviewed.   Perhaps somewhere in Germany I might be in a travel log of Valley of Fire.  Interesting day to say the least.

This is one of the cars, the two drivers were being filmed driving in.  This is a FLA by Lexus, I think they said $300. thousand, for this car.  They were racing on the road up to the picnic area.  We found out the CHP were there to stop traffic when they guys were racing the cars.  They had another car they did most of the racing in also.

So with all the happening of the filming and being interviewed, I did complete my painting.  

"Valley of Fire Vista" 11x14 plein air Pastel.

, I hope you enjoyed the blog, I sure did enjoy this trip, and I did love painting these beautiful red rocks.  Enjoy, until the next time.