Viva Las Valley of Fire

May 21, 2018

Viva Las Valley of Fire

The one about Nevada....

When I originally found out that we would be going to Nevada instead of Jordan for work, I was a bit disappointed. I mean NV is in the United States, I wanted to leave the United States. In the end though, Nevada has ended up being one of my favorite locations!

We got dropped off on the top of a mountain, and the landing space was so small the helicopter couldn't land! I had to STEP out of the heli onto the rocks, with only a held hand to prevent me from plummeting to my death.... this really happened (twice) and I loved it! I must say my love of adventure has grown immensely in the past 5 months.

Remember, that which lands on the top of the red rocks, must make its way down the red rocks. Pictures do this location no justice, I just couldn't capture the depth and height and beauty of the rocks to show you just how far down we had to climb/hike. I definitely used some of my new climbing skills when navigating my way down the rocks, which made it that much more exciting. I loved getting to put my new hobby skills to use! There was also a new member of our safety team who was kind enough to hold my hand while I faced my fear of heights over some more precarious parts of the mountain, not to mention he's super cute too ;)

If you look very very closely, you can see a man holding a ladder, he's with us

The desert has cacti, it has very evil cacti that I luckily did not fall victim to, although several members of our crew were not so lucky. The most evil of them all is the Cholla Cactus (choya). This particular one has needles to strong that they can poke through the bottom of a shoe, go through pants, and it digs deep into your skin similar to fish hooks, making it all the more painful to be removed from your appendage. See below for what this evil creature looks like.

Our other main location was called El Dorado. A kitschy little tourist trap ghost town, with old school busses, old houses, and a bedroom where the aliens reside. But, it's also home to many cool caves that were dug out during the gold rush, and a mine-which is more our speed. Our entrance to the mine was through a tunnel slide with rope to hold onto if you needed it.

Once you were in the mine, it became a beautiful maze of tunnels. The owner told us that it's 6 stories deep, with levels 4-6 under water. Leading us to the beautiful river in the mine. This part reminded me of a book by one of my favorite authors, Steve Erikkson. In this story our main character is rowing through a flooded hotel, going in and out of different sections of the hotel, which each section eliciting a different emotion, and bringing back different memories. It could also be super romantic if someone was rowing you through the cave. For me it represented facing fears, and finding the beauty where you might not think you would find it.

There's one more thing you must know about, my half hour heli ride back to our hotel. This heli pilot gave us a super fun ending to our Nevada shoot. He started low and took us up through the red rocks, he banked left and then right giving us a fright. He sped through the open desert land, with the Vegas Strip visible a miniature to us as we flew through the air. It was beautiful, fun, and daring!

Next (and final stop) is Panama...