I'm gonna keep it 💯 with y'all.... I booked this tour by accident! 🤣 Yes, I confused the Valley of Fire with Antelope Canyon, which is in Arizona. I confused the two because Antelope Canyon has beautiful, fiery looking wave-like structures, and the name "Valley of Fire" sounds like it refers to the fire-orange wave-like location that I've seen all over Instagram. I was wrong.
At first, I was disappointed by my booking error. But then, as I began the Valley of Fire tour and progressed through different canyons, I realized that this national park has its own crimson colors and amazing history!
We explored with GetYourGuide (see tour linked above). We had a fabulous time and our tour guide even took a drone video of us that you can see in the YouTube video above! The Valley of Fire is only one hour outside of Vegas, so, in theory, you could also rent a car for the day. This gives you more flexibility but also adds stress because it puts the pressure on you to find all the rocks and know which trails are the best. These are the main sites the tour above includes:
Valley of Fire
Beehive Rock
Atlatl Rock
Valley of Fire Visitor Center
Rainbow Vista, Valley of Fire
Fire Canyon
Seven Sisters
Fire Wave
Note that this tour usually doesn't visit The White Domes, which is another major area in the Valley of Fire. However, our tour guide swapped out the Valley of Fire stop so that we could have time for the White Domes instead. I would highly recommend it! The slot canyon featured at the end of my video and in this picture below is a must see!
I would also remove the Visitor Center from this list if you are touring yourself. This site has a few museum items, but it's basically just a gift shop for the park. We did get a couple postcards, but, in general, Cedric and I aren't merch people so we didn't care about shopping for Valley of Fire fits.
In my movie, I showcase four of the sites we saw. Here are some fun facts about them!
Beehive Rocks: The rounded, layered shapes of these rocks come from a process called cross-bedding, where shifting winds and water once created sand dunes that later hardened into sandstone.
Atlatl Rock: This rock is famous for its ancient petroglyphs — rock carvings created by the Ancestral Puebloans more than 2,000 years ago. The atlatl itself was a spear-throwing tool.
Elephant Rock: What makes this rock unique is that its ‘trunk’ shape formed from softer sandstone eroded faster than the surrounding rock, creating one of the most perfectly animal-shaped formations in the entire park.
White Dome: This area is famous for its pink, cream and yellow sands which are made of Jurassic-age Navajo sandstone that’s been sculpted by wind and water over millions of years. The White Dome trail is 1.1 miles long and on this trail you can see a piece of an old movie set from the 1966 Western film The Professionals.
Not only was The Professionals filmed here, many other famous movie and TV shows used these beautiful valleys as filming sites!
🎬 Pop-Culture Movies and Television Filmed at the Valley of Fire
Total Recall (1990): Many of the “Mars” surface scenes in Total Recall (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) were filmed in the Valley of Fire.
Star Trek: Generations (1994): The planet Veridian III in Star Trek: Generations was filmed at the Valley of Fire.
The Silica Dome area is especially famous among fans because its associated with Captain James T. Kirk’s death and burial in some Star Trek lore.
Damnation Alley (1977): This post-apocalyptic sci-fi film used Valley of Fire for some of its desert sequences.
Cherry 2000 (1988): In Cherry 2000, the Beehive camping area of the Valley of Fire was used as the “Sky Ranch” compound for the antagonist.
Roadside Prophets (1992): This offbeat road movie includes scenes shot on motorcycles through the Valley of Fire.
Domino (2005): Some scenes from Domino were shot in the park, including a moment where the characters’ RV crashes in the rocky terrain.
Viva Las Vegas (1963): Elvis Presley’s classic Viva Las Vegas shot part of its racing finale in the Valley of Fire, using its red-rock landscapes for dramatic effect.
If that doesn't convince you to visit this park, then what if I told you there were 40,000 acres of bright red Aztec sandstone to explore? There's something for everyone!
Hikes
There are some easy hikes, like the 1.1 mile White Dome trail. We did this loop on our tour and all ages were able to complete this walk in about half an hour. There are also more extensive hikes, like Top of the World Arch, the Seven Wonders loop and Pinnacles loop. The longest hike at the Valley of Fire is 4.5 miles long, so some avid hikers would still consider this easy and manageable.
Photo Ops
These canyons are stunning and there's plenty of wildlife! If you are a photographer, this would be a perfect playground to capture stunning red and pink canyons at sunset, or a playful big horned sheep nibbling the brush. If you are a content creator, the colors and flat walking terrain are ideal for those epic other-worldly Instagram shots! See below some of our photos from the day:
So, should you visit the Valley of Fire?
My vote is YES!! If you are in Vegas and want to do one of the nature activities that isn't as involved as The Grand Canyon (click the link for my blog about that), then this is a great option for you! The sites are beautiful, the drive from Vegas isn't too long and the hiking is fun! Wether you go on this GetYourGuide tour or do a self-guided trip, you will have a blast!
Thanks for reading! Find all my Las Vegas videos here, there's a lot more fun activities and ideas in those videos and in my U.S.A. blog section! Also subscribe to my channel Deanna Troy Travels for more nature, party and vegan activities world-wide!
