I had arranged 2 tours with Jacob to begin with to see if I would like the tours and area after doing numerous tours at Red Rock Canyon. As they knew I was doing at least two hikes they organised for me to hike two different areas, and I requested for trails with minimum amount of loose soft sand (I prefer to scramble over the rocks than walk through the soft sand).
Communication was great, with times and dates for pick up from my hotel agreed and confirmed. An email reminder was also sent that also recommended what to bring with me (Hiking shoes, Sunscreen, loose clothing, lip balm, sunglasses, hat or visor, small day pack, camera).
Both of my hikes ended up being solo tours so I had to pay an additional fee.
My first guide was Jon and we were going to hike white domes at the valley of fire on 22nd November and covered 3.46 miles. I had my own bag, and was provided with water and snacks for the trip. The journey to valley of fire is fairly long, but this time was used to get to know my guide and gauge my experience of what I could do and wanted to do. During the drive into valley of fire, Jon was able to impart his knowledge of the area with me. The hike itself was fairly moderate, with I think the most challenging area being near enough at the beginning. A fair amount of the hike was in soft loose sand, which I’m not particularly fond of but that’s what the area is like. Jon as a guide is awesome and knowledgeable of the area. Pictures are not included as part of the tour but Jon took some throughout the tour with his gopro and sent me a link a few days later.
My second guide was Dan. As he was already aware of the first tour a few days earlier, Dan had spoken to Jon to find out what I had done and to find out about my abilities. We hiked a different area of valley of fire (Mouse’s tank) and covered 2.8 miles on 25th November. Dan is also an awesome guide, who allowed me to explore different paths than what he had already explored. We constantly saw signs that big horn sheep were in the area, and as we reached a peak towards the end of tour we finally saw them in the area where we had just hiked from. As the actual hike was over, we spent another 30mins to4 5mins just following and observing the big horn sheep from the distance. It was a nice experience to have at the end of the trip. Again, photos were not included as part of the tour, but Dan was kind enough to send me his photos (including the petroglyphs in the area) after the tour was over.
I prefer to rock scramble at Red Rock Canyon, but if you want to hike at Valley of Fire I can highly recommend both Jon and Dan as guides.