We found ourselves in Red Rock Canyon on a day too windy to climb. So we took it upon ourselves to see what other adventures awaited us outside the neon metropolis also known as Vegas. After some lightweight Google searching, we found that Nevada's largest state park was a quick drive away, so we headed there. What we found was an uncrowded pocket of earth amidst the desert that housed Joshua Tree-like rocks made of a 'firey' (hence the name) red sandstone. Not only were the rocks cool to look at (they're too soft to climb, and it's not allowed) but they were FULL of incredible petroglyphs nearly everywhere you looked, some of which dated back over 2,000 years! It was really a fun day trip discovery!
Since there was plenty of day left after our time at Valley of Fire, we decided we wanted to move around a bit more and found yet another fun adventure that led us on a hike starting near Lake Mead and taking us down a boulder-filled canyon trail to the Colorado River with views of the Hoover Dam. It was reminiscent of the Narrows Hike in Zion, although a little less prehistoric feeling and no flowing river. Rather than a river, we found streams of hot water and man made tubs built up in the canyon to form pretty cool natural hot spring baths.