Bowl of Fire North | Detailed Life, Sandstone Formations | Lake Mead NRA, Nevada

Bowl of Fire North | Detailed Life, Sandstone Formations | Lake Mead NRA, Nevada | Visit lasvegasareatr... | Explore Life and Sculptures in the Northern Bowl of Fire. From rattlesnakes to lizards to blooming cacti and unique, beautiful sandstone sculptures, explore the Northern Bowl of Fire as you may have never before seen it! Lake Mead’s Bowl of Fire contains non-stop unique and spectacular sandstone sculptures. There are hundreds of them! The Bowl of Fire is divided into a Southern and Northern section. This adventure, with Jean Luc Montagnier, former director of a national park in the French Alps, explores and documents many of the one hundred + sandstone sculptures in the Northern Bowl of Fire. In addition, visit the linked page on Las Vegas Area Trails (see the video description) where we’ll be posting photos of the surprise appearance of lizards, cacti in full bloom and a surprised rattlesnake! The Northern Bowl, more isolated and hard to reach than the Southern Bowl, is teaming with life! This video will show you how we got there and what we found!
The adventure begins on Bowl of Fire Road - mile marker 16 on Northshore Road. Take Bowl of Fire Road to its upper end. On this day the last mile or so to the upper end of the road was blocked due to flood damage, so we had to continue on foot. After ascending to the ridge on the left side above the road we angled over toward the Northern Bowl of Fire Aztec red sandstone cliffs. We navigate to the area above the cliffs where most of the sandstone sculptures in the Northern Bowl are to be found. There is no specific trail today. Just find your way above the cliffs and then wander along the cliff line summit (right to left…North to South) as you view the sandstone formations. Then we descend a gully at the South end of the Northern Bowl cliffs and wind through a series of washes to reconnect with Bowl of Fire Road. A left turn on Bowl of Fire Road takes us back to our starting point in less than a mile.
Jean-Luc discusses the geological history of the area along the way, including signs of ancient flood layers in the rock and signs of ancient volcanic activity. He also demonstrates tricks to lower your body temperature by as much as 10 degrees or more on a blazing hot desert day.
As we round the last intervening ridgeline before the Northern Bowl of Fire cliff line, we happen upon a rattlesnake and take a number of pictures. We also photograph blooming cacti and wandering lizards. The photos appear at the beginning of this video. We also discover ancient fungi, precursor to plant life on earth. Avoid stepping on the delicate fungi colonies, which took hundreds of years to form and can be destroyed in a careless instant.
The video section documenting various rock formations in the Northern Bowl is silent. Observe unique sandstone sculptures with no exact copy anywhere else on the planet and probably beyond. See how water and wind has left its mark on this Jurassic Era sandstone over millions of years. Let your imagination run wild as your mind seeks to identify the formations and relate them to some object in your conscious memory. I’m thinking that images in a Dr. Seus book come closest!

[@JLucMontagnier]

Fantastic place! To do it... and again...and again...

[@lasvegasareatrails]

That was an awesome adventure Jean-Luc! Many more to come!

[@JohnnyBushwhacker-yv6bc]

Hey you guys found the Valley of Fire’s “Elephant Rock” little brother there. That’s what I call it anyway. There are some really cool places in that area the deeper you venture. Great vid.!!!!

[@lasvegasareatrails]

Thanks John! I agree, we just touched the surface. Like stars in the sky, the deeper you look, the more appear.

[@spicyaleks2881]

I saw something online about a monolith showing up on Gass Peak yesterday. Wondering if you've heard about it or if you've come across one before.

[@lasvegasareatrails]

Interesting. Thanks for letting me know. There are many stone pillars out there, but as far as I know they're all stable. I've never heard of a monolith appearing somewhere. There are also many Hoodoos, which are stone mounds, like wide monoliths. All the stone formations have been in place for thousands, millions of years. Lots of beautiful limestone arches out there too. I think I pictured one on this page: lasvegasareatrails.com/black-rock-sister-mt-charleston-wilderness-lee-canyon-spring-mountains-nevada/

[@spicyaleks2881]

@@lasvegasareatrails I'm pretty sure this one is metal like the one from 2001 space odyssey

[@lasvegasareatrails]

If a monolith were to appear, Gass Peak would be the place!

[@JLucMontagnier]

@@lasvegasareatrails I read the Las Vegas PD report about it... Interesting...

[@lasvegasareatrails]

A careful look at a photo seems to indicate rocks were piled up around the base to hold the structure up. This seems to point to human activity in placing the object. We rush to weird and otherworldly explanations. Such stories get a lot of attention, and there is no lack of people who crave such attention. As technology advances, expect a lot more of this. Don't jump to the sci-fi conclusion too quickly. That's usually the last explanation only after the more common human causes have been exhausted. The police report makes an important point: Much damage has been caused by people tramping through the wilderness hoping to see these things. The desert is extremely fragile. I often see signs of human disturbance a century or more old. Here is the police story for reference: apnews.com/article/mirrored-monolith-nevada-utah-086adae79f3ea76770ad832da215e8f1 In philosophy courses we learned that it is impossible to prove something does NOT exist. You can't prove there is not a purple cow somewhere out there. You can't prove that there is NOT a monolith out there erected by extraterrestrial beings. Just don't tramp around and 4WD in pristine wilderness areas in search of such things in order to create a social media post and boost your followers. The damage you create may scar the desert for centuries. Those who take time to follow LasVegasAreaTrails.com videos and other wilderness sites have a high respect and love for the wilderness. So, the group of readers who are seeing these words are definitely not the people who most need to hear them.