Wow.
Just… wow.
The scenery at Valley of Fire was amazing. But what made this outing so great was our tour guide, Matthew. He customized the hike routing to take into account that he had a small group of adventurous people, so pretty quickly we were off the trail and out into an absolutely stunning landscape with no one else around. The trailhead at Mouse's Tank was crowded with noisy people but pretty soon we'd left all that behind. On our route (which I'd categorize as "intermediate plus") we got some fun scrambling, a couple of tunnel crawls, and jaw-dropping scenery. Matthew was knowledgeable about the geologic and human history of the area and his commentary really enhanced the experience. Overall, I can't imagine a better way to have spent the afternoon.