Camping - City of Rocks

I went camping at the coolest place. Many people don't even know this place exists. And they do their job to not pave the road so even less people go. I did chip my windshield... But the view was so cool. It looks like a valley with rocks sticking out of the ground, kind of like a neighborhood. Then you get to this part where you climb over some of the rocks and the valley opens up into a forest. That was my favorite part, when it just opens up. This is a place known for it's rock climbing routes. There are a lot of different kind of climbs too. I don't know that much about climbing since when I did climb I usually stuck to the same kind of climb but learned a little while about trad climbing and they have some of those routes. So that sounds cool. They also have mixed routes which also seems really cool.


The planning of this trip happened all in one day. I was talking to my coworkers and was like we should go camping, And V. was like "I have a tent and you have a big car to get us all there." Tom agreed to go with us and then over IM S. agreed and it turns out we could all go for her birthday. So literally that same day we decided to go to City of Rocks and I had paid for a campsite. I have never planned anything so fast.


We panicked a little because a couple of us wanted to hang out and drink but that seemed so foreign to us. I've seen and heard of people just taking a case of beer but I don't drink beer... So I was like do I just pack my vodka and cranberry juice? And it turns out that yes, I could. I didn't because I didn't want to bring a whole thing of juice and I decided to not make time to go to the store to get the little bottles. So I just brought Sprite and mixed that. And we had some seltzer things. They were alright. Tom got drunk so that was fun except he was hungover the day of our hike... Luckily none of us were super intense about the hike. I was probably the most in a hurry because if I stopped moving for long enough my back started hurting, because I'm old.


Basically it's a 3 hour drive and about half of it is on a dirt road... And when we got there we couldn't find our campsite, but that's because it was hidden which was also pretty great. So we get there and Tom sets our tent up first because that was his first concern. And then after we got all settled he put his up. Tom and I went to explore, take some pictures, and find the hike we would do the next day. Then we made tin foil dinners and they were delicious. Then V and I went to bed pretty early and Tom and S stayed up a little later. Then we woke up, ate breakfast, hung out for a little, and then went on our hike. Even though our hike wasn't long it still kind of wore us out. It was most of our first hike of the season... So we went back to camp and took a nap. When we woke back up Tom and I went to Bath Rock and that was my time to shine. I loved that part. Tom got some decent pictures but I just wanted to hike up and down over and over again. It has some sketchy parts but that is the kind of stuff that I grew up on so I felt great. After that we went back and had hotdogs and roasted twinkies in celebration of S's birthday. V and I went to bed early again and I have no idea how late Tom and S stayed up but the next morning was pretty chill so they could have stayed up all night and I wouldn't have noticed. The next morning we woke up slowly, ate breakfast, cleaned up, and drove home. It was a great trip though and I can't wait to go again.