- This time on "Wild Nevada," I'm in the Las Vegas area, but I'm getting out of the city to enjoy some of the recreational opportunities in the surrounding areas.

From the beautiful, surreal environments of Valley of Fire, to the breathtaking views and history of Mount Charleston, that's all coming up right now on "Wild Nevada."

- [Announcer] Support for PBS Reno and "Wild Nevada" comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

- [Announcer] Travel Nevada helps provide travel inspiration and experiences for those interested in creating their own wild Nevada adventures.

(upbeat music) For more information, visit TravelNevada.com.

And by Millie Hopper and Millard Reed, Charles and Margaret Burback, Sande Family Foundation, Kristine Perry, Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, June S. Wisham Trust, the Hall family, Dillard and Meg Myers, Sara and Leonard Lafrance, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by individual members.

(upbeat music) (upbeat acoustic guitar music) - I'm starting this trip in Valley of Fire, which is about 45 miles north of Las Vegas.

I've been here once before, but this surreal, otherworldly beauty makes me eager to see more.

I enter Valley of Fire State Park by Interstate 15 and Valley of Fire Highway and head for the Firewave Trailhead parking lot, one of the Seven Wonders Trails in the Valley of Fire State Park, where I meet Ranger Kayla Wolfe.

So where are we?

- So right now you are at Valley Fire State Park, which is about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.

We are at the Firewave Trailhead, looking out to the beautiful northern views that we have.

Firewave is what we're hiking to.

It's a specific formation, it's beautiful.

It's similar to what you can see from the road, but there's a reason why there's a trail to it.

So as we get started, there's one really cool thing I wanna point out.

The termites are out and they make these cute little sandy tubes around- - [Chris] Oh yeah, look at them.

- [Kayla] So they've been busy.

- [Chris] It's like a little shell on the (indistinct).

- Yes, they're taking sand from the ground, and bringing it up.

They're making a safe little tube that they can operate within as they eat and digest the cellulose off of the plant.

- That is really amazing.

I've never noticed that before.

We haven't even started hiking and I'm already learning stuff about the desert.

This is pretty sandy.

It's like walking on a beach.

- [Kayla] So this trail is labeled as a quote, unquote, "easy trail," but we'll tell people about the Valley of Fire multiplier, which is, on a cool day, every trail feels at least twice as long due to the terrain.

And on a hot day it feels at least three times as long.

So Firewave, being a mile-and-a-half, on a cool day, feels more like a three-mile trail.

And on a hot day, feels more like a four-and-a-half.

When it's really hot, feels more like a six-mile trail, but it's a mile-and-a-half with almost no break from the sunlight in the dry heat over loose sand.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Kayla] And the closer we get to those triple digits, it just gets more and more dangerous.

So I'll tell people, "All right, if you wouldn't hike three to four-and-a-half miles on the sidewalk in this temperature, don't do one-and-a-half miles to Firewave."

- [Chris] Wow, look at that.

- [Kayla] This is the quote, unquote, "Rock of Gibraltar," not the official one.

(chuckling) It is very majestic.

- Oh yes.

- Oh yeah, so this is called ratany.

It is one of my favorite desert plants.

They have these beautiful purple flowers that are easy to miss because they're so small, but when you look closely, they have a gorgeous shape.

I am seeing so many little beetle tracks and lizard tracks.

- Yeah, little lizard tracks.

It's like a freeway.

Oh wow, that one was just all over.

- [Kayle] See how there's three little footprints, one, two, three, one, two, three on each side?

That would be a scorpion.

- In there somewhere.

(both laughing) - [Kayle] We are not gonna go right up in there somewhere.

- I'm not gonna stick my hand in that bush and dig around if that's a little scorpion track right into the bush.

- There's a lot of activity here though.

(gentle acoustic guitar music) - [Chris] Oh my gosh, we're talking and realizing the landscape's changing.

That is so cool.

Look at that coloration there.

- [Kayle] There's purple right out there.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Kayle] Well, and there's green, not shrub green, but rock green.

- Is that a combination of the different types of sandstone or what causes this coloration?

- [Kayla] So it's all the same type of sandstone and the different colors come from different minerals coating the sand grains and those were leached out from surrounding soils over millions of years.

About 200 million years ago, this looked a lot like the Sahara Desert.

All of the sandstone that you see here used to just be sand.

The dark red is iron and then kind of these pinks and purples are manganese.

- All the stuff I should take in my vitamins.

(both laughing) Well, if that's Firewave, I'd call that Creamsiclewave.

- [Kayle] Creamsicle, it's awesome.

- [Chris] Maybe Creamsicle hill.

- [Kayle] So you say that and then people, I wonder what it looks like.

Ta-da.

(both laughing) - [Chris] Back of the parking lot, Kayla shows me a shortcut to another gem of the Seven Wonders Loop, Crazy Hill.

- So what I wanna show you now is a way to access part of, it's really the end of the seven Wonders Loop, which connects to Firewave, and it's an area that is more easily accessible than the Firewave, but just as impressive.

- So if you're not up to maybe that mile-and-a-half that feels like four, you can do this one.

- Yes, so it's not really the entrance to anything, so it's a bit, it's an unofficial, it's a secret hack, we'll say.

So you watched us cross the road from the trail head, we're in the southern parking area, and we're just gonna dip right down into the rocks over here.

So it is an official trail, we're just doing it backwards and taking a shortcut to a formation, which is a great alternative to Firewave.

- This is one of those landscapes, every time you look up, you're just amazed, it's beautiful.

- [Kayle] I know, you watch your feet so you don't trip and then you look up and you think, "Oh my gosh."

- [Chris] It's amazing to think that we're only really an hour away from Las Vegas.

- Yep.

- [Chris] Because it really fills the world apart.

(gentle music) - [Kayle] There's one of these chunks that in the right lighting looks like a dragon's head.

(gentle music continues) So here is Crazy Hill.

- Oh.

- [Kayle] 250 million years ago wouldn't have been this color then.

Minerals from surrounding soils essentially leached in and then coated the sand grains.

So like the dark reds up there, only 10% of that needs to be iron for it to get that dark.

- [Chris] That's a really small percentage.

- [Kayla] Oh yeah.

- Everywhere you look is really cool.

This is one of those locations that you find an adjective and you tend to overuse it because this is really cool, this is really amazing.

And the colors are truly kind of crazy.

- People have named this Crazy Hill.

It had this name before we made the Seven Wonders Trail official.

You can actually look up Crazy Hill on Google and it'll point you right here.

(laughing) And the fascinating things, these views that we're seeing here, you can hike to see them, they're beautiful, but it's actually really easy to see amazing things from the road as well.

So if it's perhaps too hot to hike safely or you didn't bring something that you need, or if you're somebody who maybe can't access the trails- - Mobility reasons, stay in the car and enjoy the views.

- [Kayle] Yes.

So the view I'm gonna show you is really just at the top of this little sandy hill and it's right next to the parking lot.

I mean, this view is not unlike the view that we spent, what, 45 minutes hiking to.

- [Chris] Yeah, even if you just stayed on the road.

- Oh, this honestly is, I think, one of the most beautiful sections of the park.

You see the stripes, the yellows, some of the pinks and purples and the road weaving through it.

Again, I mean, here you don't even have to leave your car to see something fascinating.

- And Kayla is absolutely right.

Just driving around the park, there is more beauty than you could possibly see in just one day and this is my second time around trying to soak it all in.

(gentle upbeat music) After a bit of driving of our own, we come upon yet another amazing point of interest called Lone Rock, a perfect spot for a break in the shade while being treated to the surrounding beauty.

You know, when you look at sandstone, I know a lot of people like to climb on sandstone.

Can you climb in the park?

- Yes and no.

So if you are just scrambling on the rocks, climbing with just your hands, no tools, no chalk, totally fine.

We ask that you stay away from the petroglyph surfaces and the arches 'cause they are fragile.

Now that being said, there is one location in the park where repelling is allowed.

You just have to check in at the visitor center so that we know you're doing it and it's right here.

- [Chris] You mentioned petroglyphs.

So there are petroglyphs in this area, aren't there?

- There are and it's funny, you look around and you'd be like, "Well, where?"

'Cause a lot of people wanna look way up at the top, but this rock over here, there are a few petroglyphs right there.

And once you start looking, you can probably see the swirls, and maybe to the left, the human figure.

That being said, there are larger panels behind the cabins, just a little ways down the road.

- Oh, can we go see 'em?

- Absolutely.

- [Chris] Less than a mile down the road, there's a reminder of a time before the park and its current amenities were so popular.

Back then, these stone cabins served as a shelter for weary visitors.

- Now, before we look at the petroglyphs located here, we're gonna focus on the cabins, which are much younger than the petroglyphs.

- More recent history in the park, right?

- Yes, I mean, they're not even 100 years old yet.

- So now these were the Civilian Conservation Corps Cabins?

- Yes, they built these, and this was back when the park saw less than 10,000 visitors a year.

Now we're getting closer and closer to one million visitors every year, and so when you see almost a million visitors, that means there could be a lot of trash, there could be a lot of people misusing the land, so we really encourage people, when you're here, make sure that you're staying on the trails, you're picking up your trash.

Make sure you are not making modern-day petroglyphs.

So nowadays we don't use these cabins for people to stay and they're strictly historic buildings now that people can explore and see, what staying in the park used to be like.

Now they just use the campgrounds.

But this spot here actually was used even longer before then, so these are built in the 1930s and let's see, from AD 1 to 1200, and actually farther back, but the petroglyphs that were here were made by the people who were coming through the area between AD 1 and 1200, so 2,000 to 800 years ago.

- So in some ways you have modern history and ancient history all in one location.

- Yes.

Now the exciting thing about petroglyphs is that they are history in their place of origin.

The desert varnish, that's the dark stuff that they're carved into, it grows at a rate of 10 to 40 micrometers every thousand years.

A strand of hair is 75 micrometers across in diameter.

- So we're talking eons just to grow the canvas that the petroglyphs are on.

- Yes, and we're not completely certain what they were using them for.

We do notice that they're near sources of water, so where water would collect in the desert.

As humans, in the modern day, when we see something neat, we can take a picture.

If we want to know where something's located, we can drop a pen and a map so we really don't need to carve into the rocks to announce that we were here or to guide us anywhere.

- Looks to me like there could possibly be bighorn up there.

- Yeah, so the zoomorphs, the ones that are very clearly shaped like an animal, we've seen tortoises, lizards, the bighorn sheep.

It feels easy to guess what they meant by that, but it's also thinking, well, were they indicating that there is sheep here so this is where you should hunt?

Was it asking spirits to bring sheep to hunt, or were they just carving what they saw?

- Never get tired of looking at petroglyphs.

Thank you so much for spending the day with me and showing me more of Valley of Fire State Park.

This is an amazing location.

- It really is, and honestly, a lot of people grow to appreciate these places because somebody else shared their love with them, so we're really happy to share our excitement with you today.

- Well, and I have a feeling that I have a lot more to see.

I think I only gotta see a little bit of it.

- Oh yes, there's so much more, especially when you take a closer look.

- This has been an absolutely amazing day and there's still so much to see, but I have a big day planned for tomorrow so it'll have to wait until I return for another visit.

The next morning, I drive down Highway 95 and turn onto State Route 157 toward Mount Charleston.

I have a hike planned up to the summit of Cathedral Rock, but first I'll make a stop at Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway for a very special monument where I meet Rosa Prasser.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

Welcome to the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.

- Oh, thank you for meeting me up here, it's beautiful.

- It is, isn't it?

I like to have people imagine what this place was like in 1955 because that's when a plane crashed on Mount Charleston, November 17th, 1955.

It was a cargo plane, the C-54.

There was a Cold War at that time and everything that the military did was very secretive.

They were actually flying to Area 51, which at that time was known as Watertown.

Because it was a top secret mission, they were not allowed to communicate with anybody and they were not allowed to use their instruments as well.

Now, to make matters worse, it was one of the worst snow storms that we've seen here in a very long time.

- So they're flying completely blind without help in a snowstorm behind schedule.

- Yes.

- And no one can know.

- Right, and no one can know.

And what we say here is they made the ultimate sacrifice and a lot of people during the Cold War made those sacrifices.

It wasn't until 1998 when the mission was declassified that the families finally found out about it.

- That's a long time to not know.

- It's really a long time to wait.

There's not as much of the wreckage up there as there was before.

They've brought a lot down.

This is a propeller that was brought down and you can see it's kind of twisted from the crash.

It was a violent crash and the fuselage broke in half when they hit the mountain.

Our stones on this side represent the engineers, the passengers, and the four stones over there represent the crew.

- [Chris] And it actually has the names of those that were lost.

- So they wanted to make just this a memorial for and the crash itself, but then realizing what those people went through there, the secretive nature of the mission, the way that they sacrificed, how other people had sacrificed, they realized that it was much more than just the crash on Mount Charleston so they created the Silent Heroes of the Cold War Memorial.

It's the first Cold War memorial ever and the first one on National Forest Service land as well.

When this was dedicated, there was a vault and family members were able to put whatever they wanted to in that vault.

- [Chris] And this is where the vault is?

- [Rosa] Mm-hmm, yeah and remembering (indistinct).

- [Kayle] It's a beautiful memorial.

And the placement of it, I mean, it looks directly at the mountain.

- [Rosa] Yeah, I feel like it's a peaceful memorial where people can come back and take some time and remember their loved ones and their sacrifice.

- [Chris] While I won't be making it all the way to the crash site today, I do have a hike planned to get a better view of the area, so I bid farewell to Rosa and head down the road to the Cathedral Rock Trailhead where I meet Ranger Jennifer Humphreys.

- Hi, there.

- I hear we're gonna go for a hike today.

- Yes, we're gonna do a Cathedral Rock Trail.

- I was told this was a fun hike.

- Oh, absolutely.

It's 2.8 miles, roughly 1,000 foot elevation gain, so we will be doing some climbing, so let's rock and roll.

- I like it, so this way?

- Yep.

- I'll let you lead.

- All righty.

- [Chris] This is very different from what I did yesterday, so it'll be a nice bit of contrast.

- [Jennifer] Drastic difference.

Yeah, up here in the Spring Mountains, we have seven different life zones.

So in a way, the amount of diversity you see just on our mountain is what you would experience driving from Canada to Mexico.

- [Chris] It's amazing.

I definitely feel like I'm in the mountains now.

- Oh, absolutely.

We have all these beautiful white furs, ponderosa pines around us today.

One of my favorite trees out here, always easy to recognize.

They have this bright orange, thick bark to them, and I want you to smell it, like don't be shy.

Get your nose right up into crevice and then tell me what you think it smells like.

- Is it vanilla?

- A lot of people say vanilla or butterscotch.

- I'm getting vanilla.

So you have vanilla trees up here.

(laughing) - Kind of.

So we are approaching a junction.

We're going to the top of Cathedral Rock today.

All the way up there?

- Yep.

- Where the moon is, we're gonna go all the way.

- [Jennifer] Exactly, so you'll be on the top of that before you know it.

- [Chris] I'm excited, I wanna see what the view's like.

So is there a trail etiquette that you like to encourage people to consider when they come out hiking?

- [Jennifer] Just really respect other visitors.

Remember that people come up here for all different reasons.

You'll have your horseback riders, hikers on it and bikers, so very important to just share it with everyone.

- [Chris] So is this one of your more used trails?

- Oh yeah.

You see the size of the parking lot, fits a lot of people and it's just a beautiful view at the top.

Hi, there.

- Hi, there.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- [Hiker] Good morning, guys.

- How are you folks doing?

- Good, you guys?

- Doing awesome.

- Enjoy.

- Thank you.

There's no rule, but I always like to say hello to other hikers I see on the trail, especially when I'm in uniform.

- Oh, of course, absolutely.

- So a lot of people, you know, they might workout in town, run a few miles, but it's not the same up here.

Vegas is roughly 2,000 feet at elevation.

We're above 8,000.

- And where will, so we'll end up at about nine, right?

- Yeah.

And see what happens is the higher you get in elevation, the harder it can be to catch your breath.

- Right.

Oh wow.

You know, it's so funny when you hike, you get so busy watching your step to be safe that sometimes you forget to look up.

- [Jennifer] These are quaking aspens.

We're at the end of our fall colors.

- [Chris] Still a little bit of gold on there.

- [Jennifer] Yeah.

Back in the spring there'll be a full of green leaves.

- I've heard before that aspen are basically one organism, right?

That they share a root base?

- Yes, absolutely.

They clone off of each other within their roots.

So of course the bristle cone pine is our oldest specimen that we have up in the Spring Mountains, but the quaking aspen, pretty high up there as well due to that cloning system.

As we look back this way, do you see how that looks like a mummy lying on its back almost?

- [Chris] It really does 'cause you can see the head on the side and then the body stretched across.

- [Jennifer] Know how that mountain got its name, Mummy Mountain.

- Mummy Mountain.

Those lines in the rock even look like the wrap of a mummy.

- [Jennifer] I've never thought of it that way.

It's good to do hikes again and again.

You can always see something different, have a new experience.

- [Chris] With this being Forest Service land, Can you bring your dogs up?

- [Jennifer] Yes, you can bring your dogs.

We just ask that everyone please keep 'em on a leash.

- [Chris] Oh wow, look at this view.

- [Jennifer] It just gets better the higher you get.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Jennifer] We're looking at some of the residential housing up here and then in the distance that would be the visitor center, the Mount Charleston Retreat.

- [Chris] It's been kind of fun getting to explore.

How should a person decide what trail to try.

- It's really important to know your limits, know how much time you have.

You really wanna think about how much elevation your hike's going to have.

Are you an avid hiker?

Do you just go out a few times a year?

All of these factors are really important when it comes into picking a hike.

Also, what are your navigation skills.

Like today, we're on Cathedral Rock, a well-used trail.

It's easy to follow the path, even if there's not a ton of signage out here.

- And there's been quite a few people, so that kind of helps make you know you're on the right path, right?

- Exactly.

Whereas once you get to some more of our ridgeline trails, you really need to have that navigation skill, that knowledge of how to read a map.

So always just thinking about safety, your skill level.

And with that said, when you're with your group, you really should have your slower hikers leading the group so you can stay at a pace that works for everyone.

- [Chris] That's actually a really good tip.

So you don't want the sprinter at the front, right?

- Exactly.

- Running away from everyone.

- [Jennifer] Leaving half your group behind huffing and puffing.

Staying with your slower hikers, there's a lot of advantages to that.

That's making you slow down, take a look around.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Chris] When does the escalator get put in here?

- [Jennifer] You know, we get questions like that way too often.

We do not turn on the waterfall.

When the trails get tight, you usually wanna let your hikers that are going up go first.

- [Chris] That's good to know 'cause going up is harder, so you keep your momentum, right?

- [Jennifer] Yeah.

We're gonna be at the top before you know it.

- [Chris] Almost there.

- [Jennifer] Check out that view.

- [Chris] Oh, that was a great hike and well worth it for that view.

It's kind of a a nice way to get some perspective on how much more there is I could do up here.

- [Jennifer] Oh, absolutely, all of this.

- Well, we made it.

I think that deserves a fist bump.

That was a hike.

That felt good.

I felt that in my legs.

- Feel good though.

- [Chris] Well, thank you for bringing me up here.

What a great hike.

Got my lungs going, got my legs going, and I got to see this view, it's beautiful.

- And thank you for getting me out of the visitor center.

- Anytime.

Next time we'll go and do a little more in this direction, what do you think?

- [Jennifer] Actually, go hike up to the plane crash?

- [Chris] Yeah, yeah.

- [Jennifer] It's right up there, Mount Charleston.

- [Chris] Okay, Mount Charleston, so now we've got another bucket list item for us.

- Like it.

- After saying goodbye to Jennifer, I head back down State Route 157 and take a left onto State Route 158 to one last destination, the Desert View Overlook, which offers a beautiful view of the expansive landscape.

This has been a great adventure.

I got to see two different destinations in Southern Nevada that had breathtaking views, amazing scenery, and really fascinating history.

If I was asked to pick a favorite moment from this trip, I couldn't because I loved every moment of it.

If you want more information about this episode or to watch any of the shows in the "Wild Nevada" series, visit our website at PBSReno.org or use the PBS video app.

And until the next "Wild Nevada" adventure, I hope you get to have an adventure of your own.

I'm learning, I'm learning.

It's only taken me 85 episodes, but I'm learning.

(laughing) - All right, we're gonna use both hands.

- Both hands.

- And put 'em up to your head like they're antlers.

Respect wildlife.

- What a ham.

- Oh, they're so cute.

He's gonna go home with you pretty soon.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - [Announcer] Support for PBS Reno and "Wild Nevada" comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

- [Announcer] Travel Nevada helps provide travel inspiration and experiences for those interested in creating their own wild Nevada adventures.

For more information, visit TravelNevada.com.

And by Millie Hopper and Millard Reed, Charles and Margaret Burback, Sande Family Foundation, Kristine Perry, Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, June S. Wisham Trust, the Hall Family, Dillard and Meg Myers, Sara and Leonard Lafrance, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by individual members.

(upbeat music)