This was a pretty chill affair. I was in Las Vegas with my wife, my cousin
and his wife. I drove them out to Valley of Fire, about an hour's drive
northeast of the city. I had been there on a number of previous occasions,
so I had a pretty good idea where to take them. These are not early
risers, so it wasn't until after 11a that we 
got started
on our first
hike, the slot canyon loop at White Dome. The 
loop trail
is about a mile
and a quarter long, though only a couple hundred feet actually goes
through 
the slot canyon.
The parking lot and trail were packed, to no
great surprise, but it was still fun. Afterwards, we played around on the
lower slabs
at the base of 
White Dome. When I asked if anyone wanted to
scramble up to the top, I had three takers, but my wife backed off almost
immediately, and Don balked at the class 4 crux, an awkward chimney/crack
that comes soon after the easy part ends. To my surprise, Lori looked at
it and said, "I think I could do that." She wasn't all that sure, and
would change her mind more than a dozen times as I helped demonstrate
the techniques and moves needed and 
helped her
through it. It wasn't the
most elegant ascent, but she did make it. Above the crux, the rest
is all 
class 2-3 slabs.
She was working hard climbing those the last 150ft
to the top, and fairly out of breath by the time we 
got up.
It's a great
view spot, and she seemed to relish the views as much as the
accomplishment. Understandably nervous about getting down, we didn't stay
too long, then reversed the moves 
back down.
She showed more confidence
in her foot work on the way down the slabs, using her hands far less than
she had on the way up. I walked her back down through the crux section
without incident, and then we walked off the easier slabs lower down. Well
done, I thought.
We collected our spouses and headed back to the Jeep. Our next stop was
at Mouse's Tank. I hadn't done this short hike (3/4mi roundtrip), but
found it as interesting as it was busy. There are sections of
varnished rock
on the north side of the trail featuring 
petroglyphs.
At the 
end of the trail
is the tank, two tenajas that were unfortunately dry today (it
has been more than a month since the last rain). We did have fun
scrambling around
on some of the rock features in the area.
Our next stop was the Visitor Center. While the ladies went inside to
buy some souveniers, Don and I went to check out 
Balanced Rock.
He balked
at the class 3 step across, so backed off fairly quickly. The class 4
crux on this one was as tough as I had remembered, and I was barely able
to lift my leg high enough onto the high step to pull the move this time.
Getting old. After I came back down, we had a bit more fun scrambling the
feature immediately north of Balanced Rock, giving me an opportunity for
a few good pics of 
Balanced Rock from 
above.
We also stopped at 
Atlatl Rock
and the 
petrified logs to round out our
visit. Everyone seemed to enjoy the visit, and were happy to make their
10,000 steps for the day. My job as tour guide done, we headed back to
Las Vegas...
Continued...