Henderson, NV (3/16/2018)

Friday was a day for doing chores, such as cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping, with no plans for touring.  I wanted to go out on Saturday and hike to the Bowl of Fire, a place I had read about on the internet.  This site was described as having the same Aztec sandstone that makes Valley of Fire State Park such a colorful place, and the same as Little Finland in Gold Butte National Monument.  The photos made it appear very interesting, and I was anxious to see it.

During the afternoon, winds picked up quite a bit, prompting me to check the weather forecast.  Sure enough, Saturday was going to be very windy and overcast, with a chance of showers.  Given that I was going to leave on Sunday, my opportunity to see the Bowl of Fire seemed to be right then.  So, on the spur of the moment at 4 pm, I jumped into the LRJ and drove 25 miles to the Lake Mead NRA, where the Bowl is located.  Along the way, I noticed some lenticular clouds, caused by high winds swirling around mountains before hitting the clouds and making them look like flying saucers.

The low sun was lighting some of the mountains and badlands very nicely, giving them a golden glow.

Turning off the highway into the appropriate wash, I went about two miles and found the trailhead.  From there, it was said to be 1 1/4 miles to the start of the Bowl, following a sandy, rocky wash.  I started finding landmarks that had been described, so I knew I was on the right trail.  As expected, there were a couple of dry falls that had to be climbed, but they were no problem.  I began to see the sandstone formations as described.

The entire area of formations was quite large and would take a few hours to explore fully.  Since sunset was approaching, I decided to return to camp, not wanting to be finding my way out after dark.  I circled around a bit, taking a slightly different trail to see formations not seen on the way in.

The sunset wasn't particularly good, but as the last light was giving those lenticular clouds a reddish tinge, I drove up to the roof  deck of the hotel's parking garage to get a better view.