In May and June of 2007, Suzy and I started off on a four week trip to visit friends and relatives scattered throughout California. We estimated the total distance would be at least 4,000 miles; however, as we went over the maps, Suzy started seeing the opportunity for some pretty cool side trips along the way. The actual milage driven turned out to be closer to 5,000. Anyway, this page highlights those side trips.
The plan was to head down to southern California, and then work our way north. So, with a pre-dawn start, we drove as far as Moab, Utah, for our first stop. Having packed a trunk load of rock climbing gear, by the time we hit the road the next day, we had two good climbs in at Arches National Park.
The next stop was Zion National Park, in Utah, where during our trip research we had found an awesome hike to the top of a formation called Angels Landing. While this is only a class 1 hike, not technically hard, the exposure catches a lot of people by surprise, and we found a few hikers sliding along on their butts in a couple spots near the summit.
Day four of the trip finally brought us into southern California, and for roughly the next week, we would bounce back and forth between San Diego, the Palm Springs area, and Joshua Tree National Park for some quality rock climbing. The summer temps in the desert were already pushing up into the 90's(F) by mid-morning though, and we were having trouble adjusting to it. With a tight schedule, we tended to climb whatever was close instead of searching out the shade, and minor symptoms of dehydration came on surprisingly fast.
After leaving southern California, we entered Yosemite National Park towards the end of the day, where we planned to spend the weekend. Climbers from all over the world come to Yosemite for its bigwall challenges; although, there's a variety of less committing climbs to choose from too. We badly wanted to climb something while we were there, seemed like some kind of crime to leave without, but we really wanted to see the park even more, not just rock close-ups. Since we only had two days, we did the tourist thing instead.
After leaving Yosemite, we headed north, again, to visit more family in the Lake Tahoe area for a few days. This gave us the chance to do some climbing at an area called Lovers Leap, about 30 minutes from Tahoe. Unfortunately, as shown in the 1st shot below, it wasn't climbing weather. After hiking around in the rain for an hour or so, scouting out the climbs we would have done, we drove up to Lake Tahoe for lunch and tasters at the Lake Tahoe Brewing Company.
Heading still further north, we now had our backs practically up against the Oregon border, with a beautiful view of Mount Shasta's north side. Our visit here reminded me of the old Northern Exposure T.V. series. This is some of the most beautiful and undisturbed forest area I have seen. It makes me wonder what Oregon and Washington are like.
Over three weeks had now flashed by like a long holiday weekend, and I was starting to whine at the thought of going back to work. The trip had been great so far, but now it was time to start heading in the general direction of home. With only two days of driving ahead of us though, and five days still to do it in, we cheered up at the thought of spending three of those days at City of Rocks, in Idaho. We hooked up with some friends, who had already been there a week, and we climbed as hard as we could - I was not ready for the real world yet. While I always had my camera near by, I felt like there was no time to waist taking pictures; however, sitting around the fire drinking beer one evening, someone noticed the sunset, and we all ran for our cameras. With the moment fading, shots were taken fast, and mine at least, were less than impressive. Still, it just seemed wrong not to end this trip report with one of those shots.