City of Rocks is a National Reserve about one hour south of Burley. It is filled with huge granite formations which the pioneers thought looked like a city and it became a landmark on the California Trail. That sounds great but considering it is out in nowhere with nothing but sagebrush, it is known today for the wonderful rock climbing.
Steve loves City of Rocks to put it mildly. So every year we try to go at least twice -- once around his birthday and once in the fall. This past weekend we went for Steve's birthday and invited out good friends, the Hunsakers, to come with us. It was great to have friends for the kids to play with. The kids enjoy scrambling on the rocks and playing in the dirt as much as climbing.
The only problem is that this place is a desert with little shade. So we chose our climbs based on the where the shade was. Luckily, it wasn't too hot until Saturday, but then it was HOT!
One climb was in between two rock formations. If you want to clear out an area, show up with 8 kids and put them between two rock walls then let the echoing begin. I have never seen people veer away from us so fast, but that just makes my life easier since I am ground patrol. I don't climb and now that Abby can belay Steve I don't even have to put on a harness. It's great!
The only bad part was at Bath Rock. Bath Rock is this tall rock in the middle of the park. It is next to the largest parking lot. It's not hard for the kids to climb, but it is very tall and Steve has to belay the kids from the top instead of the bottom. Also, it's not to steep which is great going up, but makes it hard for the kids to be lowered. I think we have had a kid cry there everytime and because it's next to the parking lot, you have a great crowd to watch you abuse your kid. This time it was Sienna, our friend's 8 yr old, she was nervous to start and I shouldn't have sent her. She started up and then half way up got a bloody nose. She was frozen with blood streaming down her face. Steve had to get the other climber Jaden, up and down and then rappeled down to her. In the meantime, a nice shirtless man named Mike climbed up to give Sienna a rag. Steve hooked her on and brought her down. She looked like she was really hurt when she reached the ground, but her nose stopped bleeding quickly. I wanted to yell out, "She's alright! It's just a bloody nose" as I walked the poor girl to the water spigot to clean her up." I'm sure some people were wondering about us.
Hunsakers went home on Saturday night and we settled in for one more night of hot dogs and s'mores. The plan was that we would wake up Sunday and then have a nice breakfast followed packing up and going home. The plan changed.
About 11 pm Saturday, the wind came up. The temperature rose 10 degrees and we all settled down as a huge wind storm blew in. The tent trailer rattled and moaned. Finally at 12:30, we packed up and left. We got home about 4 a.m. That will teach us to skip church.
Steve detailed the trip on his blog if you want to check it out and know exactly which rocks we climbed go to www.jasonbohrer.com/steve
2 comments:
That post made me laugh. Kids always make life interesting, don't they?! You're a good wife to go do things like that. That is just so not up my alley.
Is that Hannah dangling from the rope up there? That is cool!
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