CJ

sleeping among the rock giants: camping at the City of Rocks

We broke out our camping equipment for the first time this season, and made our way to the City of Rock Giants!

Taylor has been feeding falsehoods of tales of giants roaming the earth to our impressionable children for the last couple of years. Now it was time that they visited the land for themselves.

Can you see the profile of the face in the rock up there? Those type of rock faces could be seen around the entire park.

Prior to arrival, Taylor would happily tell me how excited he was to camp here. “Just imagine it!” He said. “We get to sleep in a field full of GIANT ROCKS.”

Stupendous.

To my surprise, and relief, we were not just sleeping in a field with boulders. The campgrounds are actually quite amazing. City of Rocks is a rock climbing haven, as evidenced by the dozens of novice and expert climbers surrounding our field.

This “rock giant” is Elephant Rock. You can see the sheer size of it by the climber on the tip of the “elephant’s rump” on the left hand side.

Taylor led us on a hike to Parking Lot rock. I can’t tell you how grateful I was that there was a forest of tree to hike through (as opposed to a flat field of blistering sun).

  • Looking at the Twin Tower rock from Parking Lot Rock
  • Sander was very proud to haul his own water by his own genius!

As soon as we parked in our designated campsite, we were greeted by beds of cacti. Look how cute these succulents are!

He’s a spikey boy
The color of the cacti flower blossoms varied from plant to plant. They opened to welcome the sun and closed for the evening.
The prettiest desert landscape!

The kids talked Taylor & I into hiking a huge boulder to peek at the climbers on Elephant Rock. This was shocking. I was a new mom at camp. Pre-Camp Mom would have said NOPE NO WAY YOU’LL DIE but apparently Camp Mom is all like “LMAOOOO THAT’S A GOOD IDEA”.

No one should trust Camp Mom.

We could spy our blue canopy tent from our perch on the boulder!
Love this shot of my little Adventurer Arrow

The next morning we took a brief hike (about 60 yards) to Window Arch.

The arch is on the right hand side of this photo
  • Archer has the best “Calvin” face here lol
The view from Window Arch

Archer had a hankering to climb along the edge of the arch. Camp Mom was like SURE! And so off we journeyed, myself spotting Archer from down the side, while Archer carefully and slowly made his way across. Our grips felt secure, as the padding of the rock was like a tough grade of sandpaper. (It would be difficult to slip off, since its texture was so rough.)

My boy and I made it across the arch.

We realized our cooler had a leak in it the night before, and so we didn’t have any fresh food for the morning. After we hiked Window Arch, we set off for Subway back in Utah, and back to home to rest after a solid 24 hours of exploring God’s good nature. We cannot wait to come back again! (But, you know, with a cooler that actually works.)

So long, Rock Giants!

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