City of Rocks

We took a weekend trip to City of Rocks for some rock climbing last weekend.  City of Rocks is a huge rock climbing mecca in the West, with hundreds of climbing routes all over.  It is located in southern Idaho, near the small town of Almo.

 It's basically in the middle of nowhere. 

The City of Rocks has all these huge granite boulders and cliffs popping out of the valley floor, giving an appearance of a city made of rocks, hence the name.

Spencer and I left Jack with my uncle Rob and drove up early Friday afternoon.  If you have never driven on I-84 north of Tremonton, you are missing out on a whole bunch of NOTHING!  Talk about a boring drive!  

 This view went on for many miles

Anyway, the plan was to meet a former roommate of mine, Kristi (and her husband Ski) at the campsite we reserved at City of Rocks.  After a quick stop at the visitor's center, ...

... we arrived early and set up camp.

 This boulder was right next to our campsite.  The perfect place to scout out the area!  

After setting up the tent trailer, we decided to drive around and look at some potential climbing spots. 

We stopped at a few different cliff areas and walked around.

I love how colorful this rock is, with the red and yellow moss all over!

At one particular place, we got back in the 4Runner, and the engine wouldn't start!  Not even a little rumble!  All that we could get was a tiny little click.  Great.  

Fortunately, this particular parking area was being shared by a group of Vietnam vets and their wives who had come up to the City to "drink beer and camp."  Three or four men came over to look at the car and offer their advice.

Spencer - always prepared - had a spare battery in the back of the 4Runner which we tried to use to jump start the engine.  No luck.  So one of the Vietnam vets brought his truck over and tried jump starting off of his battery.  Still no luck.  We were so worried that it might be the starter, which would be much more expensive and time-consuming to fix than a dead battery.  But those men kept trying different things.  They cleaned off the battery terminals, took the old battery out and tried the spare, then finally used some sandpaper and a metal file to clean off ... well, I don't know the name of it! ... some part of the battery that connects something to something else.  Anyway, that worked!  The engine started right up, and everyone cheered!

After many thank yous and a quick goodbye photo, we headed back to our campsite, where Kristi and Ski were waiting for us.  Steak dinner with dutch oven potatoes and some board games in the tent trailer made for a perfect way to end the day.  No time to climb the first day, but that was what Saturday was for.  And I will tell you all about that later!