Back in 2000, my family and I headed to Las Vegas on vacation. The plan was to spend some time there and visit some of the national parks in the southwest. After spending some time in Vegas, the family decided to spend more time there. I am not a Vegas type of guy, so I headed out to the Valley of Fire State Park to take in the scenery. I was not really into photography then and visited the park at the totally wrong time of day and got some so-so photos. Once I got back into photography, I promised myself to revisit the park and do it right. Well, it took me sixteen years and I finally followed through on my promise.
After spending some time driving up to Overton along the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, we headed out to the park before dawn. We came through the eastern entrance to the park. We crossed the park boundary and drove up the hill toward Elephant Rock, got out and waited for the sun to rise. After shooting the rock we drove to the top of the hill and had to stop once we saw this view. We knew it was going to be a great day.