Pastel Canyon ( Valley of Fire )

The best scenery in Valley of Fire State Park is on Mouse's 5.7 mile Tank Road, a spur off the main highway, as here the otherwise pure red rocks are mixed with strata of different, lighter colors-pink, orange, yellow and white, often in close proximity to contrasting layers.

There are three recognized hiking trails starting along the road, to Mouse's Tank and Fire Canyon Wash, the White Dome Trail at the end of the road, and the short path to Fire Wave, this is the unofficial name of a swirling red and white formation, reminiscent of the larger and more complex Wave in northern Arizona's Coyote Buttes region. An off-trail extension, recently promoted by the state park service that offers a ranger-guided tour along the route, proceeds from the wave along Kaolin Wash, through two short slot sections of which the longest and most colorful is known as Pastel Canyon or Pink Canyon, then returns to the trailhead along a lower gully, past another stripy formation, Crazy Hill. 

The path to Fire Wave starts by following the road south for a few hundred feet, as far as a small sign marked' Wave,' pointing southeast, after which the path moves away from the road, crossing bushy, sandy land towards the distant drainage of Kaolin Wash, soon coming close to the base of a low orange and white sandstone promontory. The Wave is found on the southwest edge of this promontory, bordered by low slickrock slopes, between two small mounds, only 220 feet from the usually dry wash stream, which is angled east-west.