The Rainbow Vista Trailhead is 5.6 miles from the west park entrance on Valley of Fire highway. At Mouse’s Tank Rd, turn left. You will pass the Visitor Center and Balancing Rock on the right which is constructed on the Moenave & Kayenta formation, of the Triassic period, before the road climbs up past the Aztec Cliffs. The short drive through the red rock canyon will take you past Mouse’s Tank Trailhead. At the top, parking for this trailhead will be on the right.
Our early arrival provided ideal parking. This is a short 1 mile out and back trail with predominately loose rock and sand with some areas where we scaled slickrock. Per the norm, Deb and I managed to take some side routes into dead end canyons which stretched it out to almost two miles. The two side-bar adventures provided spectacular vista views of Fire Canyon below and geologic magnificence of the nearby rock walls that have a million years of scars that mother nature has left behind. Red, pink, orange, tan, and white sandstone can be witnessed as you walk along this trail.
There is a marker at the trail’s end overlooking another vantage point of Fire Canyon which we didn’t get any photos because it was all cloaked in the morning’s shadows. The red sandstone formations, the Aztec Sandstone, was in full sun.
After a short break, we retraced our steps (uphill) seeing the walls above now in much different light and the full brightness of the day was already warming things up a bit on this November morning.
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