Into Nevada

Next destination was the Valley of Fire. A little far to get to in one day, so we stopped in Las Vegas for a night on the way. I was pretty interested to find out what that city was actually like, I didn't expect to really love it and I guess I was right. All very glitzy and glamorous, but I was in desert-camping mode.
We put down $10 on black, the minimum bet. We lost it, put down another $10 and lost that too. $20 down in a space of 2 minutes, and that was that for gambling.

We left Vegas early the next day to explore some mountains we'd seen on the way into town. Rainbow Mountain Wilderness, what a name! We walked around for quite a few hours, through desert and gullies to reach the base of the crazy cliff faces. We even saw a coyote!!

That after, we headed north to the Valley of Fire. And what an incredible place it is!!
Huge lumps of red rock protruding out of the desert floor, all rounded, twisted and full of holes. The rocks were perfect for climbing, rough like sandpaper, and home to all sorts of little creatures.
Our campsite was right in amongst it all.

This was the view from our tent!

It's hard to accurately portray the scale of these majestic landscapes in the desert... Just bear in mind that everything is HUGE.