Skip to main content

2016 Fall Mountain Trip Part 7; Former Nevada State Route 40 on Valley of Fire Highway and Valley of Fire State Park

By
Following spending a night at The Stratosphere I headed north on I-15 the following morning to Valley of Fire Highway which was once part of Nevada State Route 40.






This blog entry is the 7th in the 2016 Fall Mountain Trip Series, Part 6 can be found here:

2016 Mountain Trip Part 6; Las Vegas from the Stratosphere

Valley of Fire Highway is an approximately 18.6 mile route connecting I-15 east through Valley of Fire State Park to NV 169.  Valley of Fire Highway was originally designated NV 40 and first appears on the 1935 Nevada State Highway Map.

1935 State Highway Map

During the 1976 Nevada State Highway renumbering NV 40 and NV 12 were combined into the new NV 169.  Ultimately it seems NV 169 was never applied in the field to Valley of Fire Highway and the route appears without a designation first on the 1982 State Highway Map.

1982 State Highway Map

From I-15 Valley of Fire Highway begins at exit 75.


Valley of Fire Road heads directly east towards the Muddy Mountains.





The Muddy Mountains largely consist of sand stone ridges.  As Valley of Fire Highway approaches the Muddy Mountains it descends a sweeping grade east through a canyon.






At the boundary of Valley of Fire State Park the routing of Valley of Fire Highway is signed as a Nevada Scenic Byway.






Valley of Fire State Park is Nevada's oldest State Park having been created in 1935 along with the NV 40 designation.  Valley of Fire State Park largely consists of Aztec Sandstone formations endemic to the Muddy Mountains.  The sandstone formations were formed from shifting sand dunes 150 million years ago.  Valley of Fire State Park is a popular hiking destination for Las Vegas Valley and was most notably featured as a set piece in the original Total Recall.





Probably the best road side views of Valley of Fire State Park are located just off of Valley of Fire Highway on Mouse Tank Road.







Emerging through the Muddy Mountains on Valley of Fire Highway the Lake Mead Recreation Area can be seen to the eastbound the sandstone bluffs.





Leaving the Scenic Byway portion of Valley of Fire Highway I encountered a Bighorn Sheep.  I would shortly find myself at the Lake Mead Recreation Area near Old St. Thomas Road which was part of NV 12.


Part 8 of this blog series can be found here:

2016 Fall Mountain Trip Part 8; Former Nevada State Route 12 on Old St. Thomas Road

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

By
Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.   The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...
Post a Comment
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more