City of Rocks

I had the opportunity to go rock climbing at City of Rocks with Chad and a few of his friends. City of Rocks is a National Park located between Pocatello and Twin Fall Idaho - out in the middle of nowhere. This National Park is filled with large rocks that provide countless great rock climbing routes for beginner to advanced rock climbers. Rock climbing was our main objective, but we enjoyed so many more aspects of the park.

Chad and I left on our adventure late Tuesday night after my Fire Fighting class ended. It was already dark by that time and so we were unable to view any of the scenery along the way. As we neared City of Rocks Chad assured me that we were basically out in the middle of nowhere and from the absence of any kind of city or house lights and the rare occurrence of a passing car I believed him. Once we entered City of Rocks National Park just after midnight and made our way through the winding dirt roads I was able to see some vegetation as my headlights cut through the darkness of the night. And as we made our way further into the park huge black massive rocks would appear in front of us out of the dark. With the little vegetation that I was able to capture in the night I was taken back to the long drives off the trail at Anasazi – the bumpy, pit-hole, and washboard filled dirt roads, tall grass and sagebrush mingled together, and juniper trees sporadically dotting the side of the road and land. It brought back a lot of memories and I was excited to see the landscape in the light of the day.

Chad's friends had left quite a bit earlier in the day on Tuesday and were already at City of Rocks by the time we left Rexburg. Instead of hunting them down in the middle of the night we found our own campsite to crash at. Our campsite was great! It was tucked away from the road and was surrounded by juniper trees and large boulders. It had a great spot for us to roll out our sleeping bags and gaze up into the night sky. And that is exactly what we did when we got there. And WOW the night sky was amazing! There was absolutely no other source of light anywhere, except for the stars. They glowed and shimmered so bright against the pitch black sky! The stars were like the sand on a seashore there were so many of them! It was so beautiful! And of course, I couldn't tuck my head into my sleeping bag until I saw a shooting star....or two. And that I did. :o)

I didn't sleep very well at all Monday night and so I was pretty tired by the time we crawled into our sleeping bags Tuesday night. But despite my daytime naps to catch up on sleep from work over the weekend on Monday and Tuesday and despite how tired I was Tuesday night I still ended up sleeping horrible that night for some reason. I had one of those night where you toss and turn all night and you have vivid dreams but all the while you feel like you are still awake. I was quite disappointed because I have had many a nights of better sleeping on trail under the same conditions.

I heard Chad get up from his sleeping bag and so I poked my head out of my sleeping bag and was surprised to see that it was light. It is usually the opposite, especially during a night like I had, where you peak out of your sleeping bag and think, "It's not morning...yet?" As I sat up in my sleeping bag Chad was just making his way back into camp. He told me the sun was just coming up over the rocks in the distance and hurried me to jump out of my sleeping bag so we could watch the rising of the sun. This is when I was able to see the beauty of land that I was so anxious to see the night before. Not only was the land covered in grass and sagebrush, but also aspen trees that stood tall and were bright and full of color as the leaves have begun to change.

The bright sun coming up painted the blue sky with all different shades of yellow and orange which seemed to match the colors of the aspen trees perfectly. It also changed the color of the gray rocks into a rich copper. The picture to the right is my shadow against a sun painted boulder that has been has somehow been hallowed or dug out by nature. If you look closely I am doing the "I love you" sign with my hand.

The rock formations never ceased to fascinate me throughout the day as we hiked to the different areas of the Park!

This is the area of our camp site where Chad and I slept. The ground was sand, which makes sleeping a bit more comfortable than the ground as it contours to your body. In our planning discussions Chad asked me if I wanted him to bring his tent. I kindly suggested we sleep under the stars, but in my mind I was thinking, "A tent? Who needs a tent!?! Tents are for sissies..." Need I say more? Chad actually mocked me a little bit for my style of sleeping. All I had was my bivy sack (or burrito in Anasazi lingo), my sleeping bag, and a little fleece blanket (just in case it got cold). On the other hand Chad had a foam pad, a camping air pad, and his -10 degree sleeping bag. To me, any kind of man-made camping pad is luxury. Some people can't go or live without it when it comes to camping (and that is perfectly fine), but to me it is just "extra" stuff that I am perfectly fine without. And so I go without. Even though I didn't sleep that great at all, I was still comfortable and warm the entire night.


Here is the "kitchen" area of the campsite. Our campsite was situated slightly around the side of a large hill and was surrounded by trees, so the sun didn't hit our campsite for quite awhile, making it a bit chilly with the morning breeze. We had a nutritious breakfast of instant oatmeal, hot chocolate, and bananas. In this picture I am patiently waiting for the hot water to boil so I could get some hot oatmeal in me to help warm me up a bit.

The juniper trees were full of juniper berries! Juniper trees have a significant meaning to me because of Anasazi. It was the first tree that I was introduced to and learned when I began working at Anasazi. Not only are they beautiful, but they are very resourceful trees offering a number of purposes from trunk to sprig. Each time I see a juniper tree I think back on all the times they have aided me in my walking out in the wilderness, especially in difficult situations where they became the only source of hope for a warm fire on a cold or rainy day. It is a tree of many uses; a tree of wealth.

Once the sun hit our campsite we were sure to bask in its warmth! Here is Chad relaxing and warming up in the sun on his two sleeping pads. The warmth of the sun in our campsite was a very welcomed gift!

The next several pictures are shots of either the scenery or of interesting and awesome rock formations that I came upon.

The groups of aspen trees across the Park were sporadic, but I loved seeing them bring color to the area around them. They were bursts of color and life against the brown grass and sagebrush and the gray of the big rocks.

This is an overshot view of basically what City of Rocks looks like. What an appropriate name, huh? It is scattered with huge rocks and boulders amongst various vegetation. There is no rhyme or reason to their placing and it is mind boggling trying to imagine just how it was created. God is quite the architect, designer, landscaper, and artist!

I came across these holes in the side of a huge boulder that was stacked on top of another large boulder. I took a geology class in college but we never learned exactly how holes like these are created. I know it is through different elements of weathering, but just how the holes and other random formations on the rocks are created I do not know.

This boulder was not too far distant from the previous boulder. The pine tree in the background hid this large hole that I discovered in my exploring. This shot was taken laying down, looking up through the hole. Standing up inside the hole the rock was further carved out leaving perfect seating areas for two to three people.

I don't know what kind of berries or bush this is, but I spotted it as I was exploring and ended up being the only one I saw the entire time I was there. The berries looked very tempting to try and looking back I wish I would have taken the opportunity to taste one or two. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't?

A lot of the exploring I did happened when Chad and I were waiting for his friends to get situated. His friends included a husband, wife, and their little baby and the wife's immediate family - mom, dad, and three or four younger brothers. So, with that many people to shuffle around and get situated I had a little bit of exploring time to myself before we hit the rocks.

Finally after waiting a couple hours for everybody to get ready Chad and I decided to head out ourselves and meet up with them later. We drove to the trail head and then hiked for about ten minutes on a beautiful trail part way down a canyon until we came upon the first rock climbing area called Tribal Boundaries. There were some rock climbers just finishing up their climb on Tribal as we arrived. As we waited for them I did a little more exploring.

The picture on the right is a 'window' in the rock. This was the first thing that caught my eye as we approached Tribal Boundaries because of light that was shining through onto the shaded rock. I put my stuff down and immediately climbed up to the window to look out the other side. The view was awesome! It dropped straight down just on the other side of the window into a aspen filled canyon and then huge boulders rising up the other side, as you can see in the picture. I studied the rock in the surrounding area of this window and was again left completely bewildered at it's formation and creation!

This rock formation was at the very top of the Tribal Boundaries climb. I was able to get a closer look at all the intricacies of this particular formation when I rock climbed up to it. I was even able to climb into one of the hallowed out sections. In the section that I climbed into the ceiling of it had a swirl type design in the rock. It was amazing to see all the different designs throughout and in the rock.

This picture, shown on the right, is a good shot of Tribal Boundaries. And if you look closely you can see me nearing the top. For those of you who are familiar with ratings on climbs, Tribal Boundaries is a 5.10a. This is right at my level. Chad lead climbed this route first to set up the ropes and made it up in a breeze. He made it look easy, and he did the harder side of the wall. I took the slightly easier side and still found it challenging at times. I got stuck in the middle where hand holds were small and scarce. I slipped off a number of times in my attempts to reach onto a higher hand hold.

I hurt my wrist Tuesday night in my fire fighting class. We learned how to use the hose and actually got to practice a couple of techniques with the hose. I don't know how I hurt my wrist, but did somehow in the process of practicing. It was at the point in my climb where I was stuck that I had to use the hand with my hurt wrist to bare most of my weight. With the combination of pain from my wrist, the small handhold, and the weight put on my wrist I couldn't stay on the rock. I ended up finding a better route and making it to the top, but after falling several times I was close to calling it quits for that route. I am glad that I didn't allow myself to give up and that I kept trying until I succeeded.

There I am at the top! Woohoo! I was surprised by how well I did on my first climb, especially it being rated a 5.10a - considering that I haven't rock climbed in about a year, I am afraid of heights, and I hate falling off the rock when climbing because I don't trust the rope completely. During this climb the fear of heights didn't get to me like it usually does and I wasn't afraid to fall off the rock as I have been in the past; I trusted the rope a lot more. I don't know what changed this or why my fear wasn't as great as it has been in the past, especially since I haven't climbed in a long time, but I was quite grateful. It made the climb a lot more relaxing and enjoyable. Tribal Boundaries was my favorite climb of the day because it was challenging, yet I was still able to succeed.

After finishing Tribal Boundaries we made our way down to the bottom of the canyon to meet up with Chad's friends who had already started climbing on the Bumblie Rock, which has four climbs rating between a 5.8 to a 5.11a. This was a good rock for the younger kids to climb and have fun on. Three of the four route were already set up (the easier of the climbs) to climb when we arrived and they were all being climbed on. So in the meantime Chad and I went around the corner onto another rock face called Transformer Corridor. There Chad climbed a 5.11a that began with an overhang. I didn't even make the attempt to climb this route. It was way too advanced for me, but was quite impressed with Chad's ability to climb it with what appeared to be ease and finesse. After getting over the overhand, it is almost like climbing a latter the rest of the way to the top. It was a quick climb and rappel.

This is Chad climbing on the Transformer Corridor, after making it above the overhang. I would have loved to get a picture of him working the overhang, but wanted to make sure I was ready to hold him in case he fell. The overhang isn't shown in this picture, but is right below the lowest bolt.

We enjoyed a tasty lunch of Angie wraps after his climb and then layed on the rock and relaxed. The weather was perfect that day! Not too hot and not too cold; very pleasant in the shade too. The day started out with bright blue clear skies, but as the day progress clouds began to fill the sky and offer some cooler weather and added beauty. It was so relaxing laying on the cool rock and gazing up into the sky. If we had laid there much longer after eating lunch we both would have drifted off to sleep. We we re pretty tired and were in perfect conditions for a nice pleasant little afternoon nap.

After finding some motivation to get up again after lunch we headed back to Bumblie Rock to do another climb or two. The picture to the right is the next and last climb that Chad and I did for the day. This climb is rated as a 5.8 climb. The hardest part is getting up the first 10 feet or so, where it is completely smooth rock. The rest is a cake walk to the top. I took this climb a little slower because my left big toe was in a lot of pain. Neither my climbing shoes or Chad's climbing shoes liked my big left toe for some reason. Climbing shoes are meant to be small and quite snug, but they were a bit too snug on that one toe and it made it painful to climb. It was always a wonderful feeling to take off the climbing shoes at the end of each climb. I am grateful for the climbing shoes that were given to me by my good friends, Matt and Julee, but a good pair of shoes that fit just right is worth the expense and effort.

One of these days I'll make that expense and put forth that effort, but until then the shoes will just have to do.

Chad climbed after me and cleaned up the route (took everything down). It was just after four o'clock by then and everybody had pretty much gotten their fill of rock climbing in for the day and were ready to head back to camp for a nice big meal.

Originally our stay at City of Rocks would have lasted til Thursday night, but I had an appointment early on Thursday morning that I had to be back for and so we weren't able to stay the extra day for addition rock climbing fun. If felt bad for leaving early and was totally fine driving home alone, but Chad insisted on driving back with me on Wednesday because he didn't want me to have to drive all the way back alone, especially being tired from not sleeping well and from being tired from rock climbing all day.

So we loaded up all of the ropes and rock climbing gear and made our way through the beautiful canyon back to my truck. We waited for the rest of the gang to catch up so we could say goodbyes and then we were off. I was glad that we left before nightfall because I was able to see the scenery of City of Rock that I had missed on our drive in the previous night. Without fail, it was just as gorgeous as everything I had seen throughout the day!

We stopped at a little hamburger joint on the way out for a quick and satisfying bite to eat for dinner and then we hit the road. Enya, U2, and Coldplay accompanied us on our drive home. We were able to watch the sun set behind us through the review mirrors and see it's reflection on the snake river that paralleled the freeway. It was awesome to have been able to watch the sun rise before our eyes that morning and then have it set behind us that night. The day felt full, complete, and satisfying. It was wonderful break away from the mundane of everyday life, even if it was just for a day. Thanks Chad!!