City of Rocks

From Craters of the Moon, we drove to City of Rocks (still in Idaho). It’s a well known, but somewhat out of the way climbing area. We went to the visitor center and learned that it was a popular spot along the California Trail, which was mainly in use in the 1840s – 1880s. The picture we saw showed A LOT of people on the trail – it looked busy! They said that about 240,000 people travelled the trail in that time (about the current population of Boise, ID).

After we got the camper set up, we drove up into the area and explored. We met a family who has been coming for a week long climbing trip here for the past 13 years. One of the daughters is now a student at Colorado College! We hiked down the Flaming Rock trail for a bit and then saw Window Arch. It was beautiful!

Claire and Reece exploring the Bread Loaves area

The next day we climbed at Parking Lot Rock and Anteater Rock. It’s really great rock (featured granite) and there are TONS of places to climb. We were out there until after 6 pm. After grabbing a quick dinner at the camper, we went to Durfee Hot Springs. A local swimming pool/hot tub heated by natural spring fed water. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

Even through we were leaving the next day, we got a couple of climbs in at Bath Rock in the morning. Claire and Reece are really getting good at climbing!