City of Rocks

With a name like "City of Rocks," this place definitely piqued our curiosity.  It was slightly out of the way and a dusty drive into the hills, but it was worth it.  Apparently a rock climber mecca, it was also great for trail running.

And general gawking at rock formations like this window we saw while driving in:

We were excited to score a walk-up campsite that we fit into.  This place is popular on the weekends.  How did we not know about City of Rocks before?

Replicas of emigrant wagons at the visitor center:

Granite intrusions:

Emigrant names written on the rocks - if it's old enough, even graffiti can be designated as "historical":

A memorial to the California Trail that rolled through here:

Another name in a neat little alcove:

Getting an overview of the landscape:

I did a long run that day for a closer look, heading across the field toward the hills of rocks:

The rest of this is just a set of pictures of curious and interesting rocks, like this one:

We could spend many days climbing around on these things:

Slabs and cracks in all directions:

Now that's geology:

Fun names for some of the climbing routes (also Slabbage, Scream Cheese, Too Much Fun, Private Idaho, Crack of Doom, and Bloody Fingers):

View back down to the valley:

How does this happen exactly?

Looks like a fun scramble:

Another curiosity:

Awesome little window:

The "inner city," as we heard someone refer to it:

Love it:

Lots of holes of various sizes, part of the rock climbing appeal:

Heading up onto Bath Rock, there are even a couple rungs to cling to on this part:

Look ma, I made it this far!

The last bit wasn't quite so obvious, but John gave me a hand up (after he stopped snapping photos):

The view from the top was great (see many of the above photos).  The climb down was also exciting, in that I wasn't sure what I was thinking by climbing up the thing.  Where's our rope when I need it?  John was patient and tried to teach me a bit of rock climbing technique.

I'm not sure I absorbed any of it, but I did get down  :)

The next morning we did some actual rock climbing on Practice Rock, a really nice introduction.  I could totally see coming back here to learn more.

We didn't even get over to Castle Rocks State Park nearby.  Next time!