You can tell this is a “dangerous area” and that “this is not a trail” by the five million bootprints going around the warning sign.
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days

When I load photos of Valley of Fire into programs like Lightroom, they automatically crank the color down 15 notches because the programmers at Adobe in Seattle canʼt conceive of a place that isnʼt as humid and grey as where they live.
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Seeing a cactus skeleton is a good way to understand how much water they store.
The large black things are hare droppings. The tiny black dots that cover everything is called cryptobiotic soil: “cyanobacteria that cement the soil together. It provides nutrients for plants and seeds, and increases the soil topography which allows greater moisture absorption. This crust is only a few millimeters thick and is easily destroyed when walked on. Recovery can take between 7 and 250 years. Please donʼt walk on it.”
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days
Sunday, February 24th, 2019 Alive 17,470 days

I took the Hasselblad out to the Valley of Fire today. My main lens is just about toast because so much sand gets into it on these trips.