My first visit to this amazing state park was in 2000. Not being a Vegas type of guy, I headed to this park instead of spending the day in Vegas. I was not into photography at that time then and visited the park at the totally wrong time of day, resulting in the few photos that I took being terrible to say the least. I was taken by the beauty of the park and knew if I ever got back into photography, I would do it right someday. I was lucky enough to make my return to the park a few years ago and was determined to be there at the right time of day. After staying in a local hotel, we headed out to the park before dawn. We drove 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.