You might know heat. But until you’ve been to Nevada in the summer you may not know heat.

I had read about how sweat will evaporate so quickly you won’t even know you’re sweating, I was like “Pshh, right.” But it’s true!

During the summer of 2012, I was in Las Vegas for a few months of work which was pretty fun just by itself. But the opportunity to hike in the desert for the first time really excited me.

My first weekend trip was to the Valley of Fire, about an hour drive from Las Vegas. It was a mere 105 degrees and armed with enough water to drown an elephant, I headed out to hike Mouse’s Tank and Charlie’s Spring Loop.

Valley of Fire State Park

The colors in the park are a mix of firebrick and orange-brown rocks, golden sand, and broken up on occasion by scrubby green bushes. An interesting color palate that I hadn’t seen since my Mom and I drove through Albuquerque on the way to Texas many years ago.

When I was in Mouse’s Tank, I stood still and the only sound I could hear was the whoosh of wind blown sand. The best part was finding a quiet spot in the hills where sand was cascading down the side of a rock like a waterfall. I was drawn into thinking about how remarkable it is that Native Americans lived in areas like this without a problem.

Then I hiked back to my air conditioned rental car and a little ways down the road came upon this reminder of the harsh landscape.

Moral of the story – take lots of water. Seriously. Cell phone reception in the park is mediocre and you can’t rely on coming across fellow travelers.