#10 of 18 sights in Valley of Fire
Sight · Valley of Fire State Park
A quick walk among red domes striped with ancient dune layers.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Valley of Fire Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Valley of Fire State Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Valley of Fire audio tourRecorded for this place
Beehives: Follow the Slanted Layers“The Beehives are ahead, rounded red sandstone domes you can explore on a short path. Stop for a close look at the slanted bands wrapping around the rock: they preserve layers of sand laid down as ancient dunes shifted.”
Plays as you drive up to Beehives in the Parkwolf Valley of Fire Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Beehives is a group of rounded red sandstone domes near Valley of Fire's west entrance. A short path winds among the rocky mounds, so it's an easy detour for a close look at the park's layered stone. If your day is packed, treat it as a quick stop rather than a long outing.
The diagonal bands are cross-bedding: successive layers of sand and silt settled at different angles as wind or water moved. Valley of Fire's Jurassic sandstone preserves old wind-built dunes left after inland seas receded and the land rose. At Beehives, those slanted beds wrap across the domes, making the old layering easy to see in three dimensions.
The short path runs through rocky dunes, with the Muddy Mountains in the distance. Expect uneven footing as you explore among the formations. For a photo, put a grooved dome close in the foreground and leave smaller rock forms or the distant hills behind it; that shows both the layered surface and the setting.
Valley of Fire's annual maintenance closure runs December 1 through 14, when the whole park closes to visitors.
Wildlife
647 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
11 sightingsMojave Desert TortoiseMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
23 sightingsSidewinderMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
18 sightingsBlack-tailed JackrabbitMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
11 sightingsRingtailMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
19 sightingsRed-tailed HawkMost seen around 10 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Valley of Fire. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateOld Arrowhead Road6.8 mi · 3.5 hr · 0.6 mi awayA long desert crossing on an old road marked by arrowheads.
EasyPetrified Logs Loop Trail0.3 mi · 20 min · 0.7 mi awayA short loop with fossil wood and the story behind its grain.
ModeratePinnacles Loop4.7 mi · 2.5 hr · 0.8 mi awayFollow a sandy wash into a pocket of red sandstone spires.
ModerateProspect Trail4.6 mi · 3.3 hr · 1 mi awayAn open cross-park hike over a red-rock pass into a striped wash.
EasyBalancing Rock Trail0.3 mi · 15 min · 2.2 mi awayA short walk to a sandstone stack with an eyelet.
EasyMouse’s Tank Trail0.7 mi · 36 min · 2.6 mi awayLook up as you walk: petroglyphs mark a sandy red-rock canyon.
EasyRainbow Vista Trail1 mi · 45 min · 3.1 mi awayA sandy canyon walk to a rugged overlook above Fire Canyon
ModerateSilica Dome Trail1.2 mi · 1 hr · 3.8 mi awayA short scramble climbs to a wide view over Fire Canyon.
Campground · 0.1 mi awayGroup Camping AreaThree reservable sites each hold up to 45 people.
Campground · 0.4 mi awayAtlatl Rock CampgroundSleep among red sandstone and start the park day here.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayFire Cave (Windstone Arch)The arch fell; the honeycomb sandstone is still worth a short look.
Visitor center · 0.4 mi awayValley of Fire Visitor CenterStart with the sandstone story before exploring the red-rock country.
Campground · 0.6 mi awayArch Rock CampgroundSleep beneath the sandstone with tables, grills, and water on site.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayAtlatl RockClimb above the road for petroglyphs framed by red sandstone.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayArch RockA quick Scenic Loop stop for a red sandstone arch.
Sight · 0.8 mi awayPetrified LogsThe best-exposed trunks come farther along the short loop.Parkwolf’s Valley of Fire ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
