Saw your post on FB about hiking in Cathedral Gorge and it sure brought back some cool memories. In ‘78 my AF squadron played in a Braveshield exercize and we set up a tech site on a 1900’ mesa called Mormon Mesa (has a big white M on the side. About 80 miles or so of where you and your wifewere. we stayedthere a month in a tent city right outside of a little fart of a town called Overton. On my days off, I hiked every day in a very cool place called Valley of Fire and the moonlike landscape was a lot like the pics you posted. Horny toads and scorpions and lots of ants for some reason. This was in April and I was lucky enough to see Valley of Fire after an inch of rain which triggeredall the cactus to bloom. Truly, a valley of red fire. I’ll never forget it. I was a 25 year old buck sgt and dumbstruck by it.
Go see it sometime, its amazing.
Thanks for triggering a great memory!
BKB