After an amazing weekend in the Tetons, we returned to the ranch to pick up the very, very tired and happy dogs from the ranch. We loaded up the car and started to make our way towards City of Rocks. On our way there we stopped in a town and did some laundry and bought groceries for the upcoming week. We arrived in the City just after dark and quickly fell asleep. In the morning, we were shocked to see all the crazy rock formations around us!
The City of Rocks reminds me a lot of one of my other favorite places, Joshua Tree. It really is like a little city, with tons of rock formations making up the buildings. There is everything from boulders, to huge multi pitch length formations. The granite is sharp and full of features like patinas. It is also very sticky so you can smear your feet on the smallest lumps in the rock and they will hold fast.
It was nice to be able to settle down somewhere and really set up camp. The campsites are set among the rocks and have a unique feel to them. We reserved a site for a full week and unloaded our car for the first time. We set up our tents, our stove and our hammock and made our campsite our new home. Everything in the City is fairly close, so you can walk to the different crags and go back to your campsite and make lunch. The proximity of the climbing and the short approaches make for a mellow day of climbing and shade chasing. Our first day was a little overcast, and the night windy and cold, but after that the weather heated right up and stayed excellent for the duration of our stay. The coldest it got at night was probably 40 degrees and the warmest day probably hit 90.
We were fortunate enough to be in the City during the full moon. At night the sky would be perfectly clear and you could watch the moon rise over the mountains. It would illuminate the sky so brightly that there was no need for headlamps. The rocks would bask in the moonlight and beg you to climb them.
Besides being quite fortunate with our weather and experiencing the full moon, we were also lucky to have some visitors! Our good friends Eric and Corbin drove out for 4 days from Lake Tahoe. It was so good to see them, climb together, and hang out around the campfire at night and share meals together. Their psyche was great to witness as they pulled down on many cool classics at the City.
There is a town just outside the City called Almo. It consists of a general store, a steakhouse, and Rock City, which is well stocked with beer and snacks and also makes pizza. During the midday heat, we ventured into town and got ice cream and passed some time on the grass in front of the general store (the oldest store in Idaho!). It was interesting to see the slow moving pace of this small town, where climbers may well outnumber inhabitants.
After a few days of climbing, we started getting used to the rock and sending some really fun climbs. One of my favorite climbs was called Another Pretty Face. It was a thin, technical slab- my favorite kind of climbing! You had to maneuver through each part of the climb very carefully and delicately. Slab climbing requires a lot of balance, a lot of focus and a lot of patience. I enjoyed moving slowly up the climb, looking for the perfect place to put my foot so that I could transfer all my weight onto it and push up while balancing my hands against the blank rock face.
On our last evening in the city, the hottest day of the week, we went into town and Casey made a phone call to his old boss who used to work at Black Diamond. He set up a private tour of the Black Diamond headquarters in Salt Lake City for us the following morning at 11. We realized that we were 1. In Idaho and 2. Hadn’t showered in eight days. We decided that a shower was necessary before reentering civilization and were fortunate enough to find some at a nearby RV campground. Now that we were clean(ish) we just had to be in Utah by 11 AM. Fortunately it is only about a 3-hour drive; unfortunately we had loads of stuff to pack up. We managed to hit the road by 7:20 and we headed east, right into the sunrise.
We realized just how rural of a town we were in when we had to drive 50 miles on a dirt road to reach the highway towards Utah. It was quite a battle of sunrise vs. very dirty car windshield, and the poor visibility may or may not have cost a large bird its life. 3 hours later we were parked in front of Black Diamond and psyched for our tour!
We got to walk around the awesome building and look at all the cool pictures on the walls and then we got to go downstairs and see where things are manufactured. It was so cool to see carabiners, crampons and cams being made. We were like little kids in a candy store, ooing and ahing at everything we saw. We got to see the place where products are tested- a giant freezer full of ski boots, trekking poles, ice screws and more, and then we got to see a carabiner in a break test! The carabiner was pulled until it started stretching and eventually with a loud ‘pop!’ the gate broke. Awesome!
After the Black Diamond tour we noticed a poster advertising the Reel Rock Film Tour, which happened to be showing that very evening in Salt Lake. We were thrilled that our timing was such that we would get to see the show, which consists of a bunch of new climbing movies that are sure to get you psyched. We headed to the theater to pick up tickets and were super excited to see a Great Harvest Bread Co. across the street. We discovered Great Harvest in Jackson and were thrilled to see another location. When you walk in you get a huge slice of bread to sample and you can choose to purchase a loaf from the various varieties that are being made on that day. After getting some bread we plopped down on a small patch of grass next to the sidewalk in front of a fruit stand. We got to talking with the fruit vendor lady, Emi. Emi was very talkative and full of good information about climbing in the area and camping with dogs. She informed us about the difficulties we might face trying to camp with the dogs in the area because all of the cities water comes from the canyons where the campgrounds are so dogs aren’t allowed because they could contaminate the water. Rather than stress, we kept sitting on the grass eating our cinnamon pull apart bread and a box of fresh raspberries. I think Emi took pity on us because she offered us a bag of about 10 ears of fresh corn. She said she wouldn’t be able to sell all the corn she had so we might as well take it.
After awhile Emi approached us with an unusual favor. “I forgot that I had my friends car seat in the back of my car and I have to load up all this fruit, so I was wondering if there is any way you could take this to her house… I’ll give you some free raspberries!” We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and replied, “sure, why not?” It was indeed, one of the more random requests I have received, but I sure do love raspberries. It was amazing to see the complete trust that a stranger could put in us, although I suppose we wouldn’t have much use for a child’s car seat in our own lives. We took the car seat, strapped our corn and raspberries into it and walked down the block, loaded it in our car and dropped it off on a porch not too far away.
After dropping off the seat, it was time for the film fest, which was awesome. The films were all great and we left the theater stoked, but soon realized that we still didn’t have a place to sleep. Casey asked around outside the front door and soon saw a group of BD employees, so he asked for camping suggestions. “You can camp in my backyard,” one of them offered. Done deal. We navigated through the city blocks of Salt Lake, which confuse me with their numbers and duel directions (East 100 South… what?!) We got temporarily lost, but found the house, made our way to the back yard and fell asleep, being periodically woken up by the barking, howling, yowling, and yapping of the dogs on all four sides of the fence we were surrounded by.
In the morning, it was clear that city life wasn’t cutting it and we headed for American Fork. We got directions and suggestions from people at two different climbing gyms, picked up a guidebook and a chocolate bar at REI and headed up the canyon. It was absolutely beautiful driving into the park, fall colors burst forth from the trees that lined either side of the road and beautiful rock jutted up from amongst the colors. I wasn’t too thrilled with the climbing, just because I wasn’t used to the slippery rock, but it was cool to see a new area. We drove up the canyon and found a beautiful campsite along the creek. Besides being beautiful, this campsite was free which made it that much better to us. That night we made a fire and buried our corn deep within it. We impatiently turned our corn every few minutes until we decided that it must be ready. The corn was delicious and soon our bellies grew full and our eyes grew tired. We fell asleep to the sound of the creek running by and woke up to find a fresh, brisk fall morning awaiting us. A bit of climbing and we were off again, on the road toward Provo.
Provo is the home of one of my very favorite families that used to live next door to me in California, and at the time there were 6 kids, which meant there was never a dull moment in the neighborhood, never a lack of playmate. We would play in the creek, jump on the trampoline, have street hockey, football, basketball and kickball games in the street, ride bikes, rollerblades and unicycles and go to the park all day everyday. Being in Utah, I knew that I had to go visit and was delighted to hear Page’s joyful voice on the phone telling me to come on over.
There are now 8 kids in the family, which means even more fun and even more action. We arrived at their beautiful home, set amongst the amazing backdrop of fall colored mountains to find cookies being baked and kids running around the house. It was wonderful to catch up on all that had happened since I had last visited six or seven years ago. That evening, Page’s sister was putting on a free rooftop concert downtown so we followed Page and Vance on their orange Vespa and soon arrived at a beautifully lit, very well attended concert. There was so much positive energy in the air, and on a particularly lively song, Page grabbed Vance’s hand and pulled him in front of the stage and began to dance. All I could do was smile and laugh as I watched them spin around in front of the crowd, love flowing from their very being, their smiles lighting up each other’s face. It is a refreshing and beautiful thing to witness a love like that, and it reminded me of my own parents and made me miss them.
The following morning, we woke up to some gourmet waffles being whipped up in the kitchen. The hustle bustle of the morning was thrilling as everyone woke up and gathered around for breakfast and signed up for Saturday chores. It was great to be part of a family and to witness the amazing dynamic of this particular one. We ate raspberries and apples from their garden, the eggs from their chickens were used in the waffles and the honey from their bees in the smoothie we drank. After overindulging in waffles, we set off to check out a potential climb that Casey had seen from the road. We hiked and bushwhacked for several hours only to arrive at the base of the rock and find that it was very chossy. No first ascents for us!
This morning was another breakfast party, this time crepes. Voices chorused across the table asking for various ingredients to be passed. Everyone was smiling and happy and enjoying each other’s company. There is never a slow moment around here, people are always coming in and out of the doors and running around the house enjoying life.
The weather is looking pretty spotty for the next week, but we may head to Colorado (state number 7!) today and make our way back to Utah in a few weeks. We will be leaving Utah thoroughly refreshed and rejuvenated, not to mention clean and showered! Today marks the official four-week mark on the road and I am looking forward to all the adventures that the next four will hold.
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