Fall Break at City of Rocks

We've been talking about going to City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho for about a year now, since we first heard about it mentioned by a fellow camper last summer in Christmas Meadows.  When I read about it on a friend's blog I knew that it would be a perfect spot for a family trip.  We made it happen during fall break this year, but we had to skip out of town a day early to get the optimal weather for our trip.  We left after school (early out day) on Tuesday, October 15th, with our little Tearanosaurus Rex in tow.  It took us about 3 hours to get there (we had to drive a bit slower than we normally would on the freeways because of the trailer), and we pulled in to the park right at golden hour.  We snagged the first campsite we saw and Gregg quickly got a fire going while the kids immediately started climbing the rocks.  We ate a feast of hot dogs and beef stew and biscuits followed by s'mores and hot chocolate and cider.  Yum!  We did the campfire pokey and shook ourselves about and then it was time for bed.  (The nice thing about camping in the fall is that we can do all the fun campfire stuff and still get to bed at a fairly normal time!)  

Fun kid-level climbing right in our campsite!

This shot gives you a little lay of the land view of our site -
parking for car and trailer on the left, picnic table and fire pit
on the right (where the red cooler bag and Gregg are), lots of
"grass" and sage brush and cactus and some fun playing rocks
in between.  For grabbing the first site we could see, we were sure
happy with the area!

Dinner time!

Beef stew on the fire.  Delish!

Pictures don't do it justice, but the sunset was lovely.

We were snug and cozy in the trailer and the kids slept great.  (I never sleep well anywhere besides my bed, so under the circumstances, I slept fairly well, too. ;)  It was pretty chilly when we woke up, so we snuggled in our covers and told jokes and stories while waiting for the sun to come up.  Then we hopped out and made another fire.  For breakfast, Gregg made pancakes, warmed up bacon (I cooked it before we left), and eggs, plus we tried out some dehydrated hashbrown action and they were actually pretty good!  The kids played and ran around as we cleaned up and by then the sun was warming things up nicely.  It was time to hike!  

The moon was SO bright and clear on my morning
walk to the bathroom up the road.

Last one at breakfast.

We drove around the park/campground to get a lay of the land and then opted to start exploring at Parking Lot Rock.  City of Rocks is a popular rock climbing spot, so most of the trails lead up to and around the biggest rock features in the area.  There are signs to mark the names of the rocks/routes, but we just wandered and enjoyed the fall leaves and cool rocks.  And pine nuts!  Callie noticed the first one on the trail and soon we were all spotting them.  We came upon a whole pile in the middle of the trail and scooped them up to bring home and share with friends and family.  It was fun to spy the pinyon pines that still had cones with seeds on the branches.  Thanks to Grandpa B for introducing Cal to pine nuts just the week before or we probably never would have noticed them.  

A few aspens were golden, but others were kind of duds.  Story
of our fall.

It was still a beautiful morning all the same.

Lots of granite rocks in the distance.

I think this rock was called Animal Crackers.

Weird formation on the side.

I spy Rabbit Rock.

I was trying to capture Gregg in the aspens, but
it didn't work quite like I envisioned.  He's still
cute, though.

So many crevices and caves to explore.

Check out that balancing rock!

Up we go!

I love these gnarly twisted logs.  Also the heart shaped hole
under the balancing rock in the background is cool.

Plants that grow on rocks amaze me.

I spy Window Rock (at last! - we walked around
it but never saw the window until we came at
it from another angle.)  (The window is a tiny
pinprick of light in that distant rock next to the
aspens yonder.)

Can you find the window in this shot?  (Turns out the window
is totally visible from the parking lot!)

We drove to a couple other little parking areas to explore Window Arch and Bath Rock, and then it was time to check out of our site and find a picnic spot for lunch.  We hitched up the trailer and drove down the road to the visitor's center.  There were a few tables scattered about the lawn so we ate our lunch there.  Then we went inside to get our passport stamped and buy a postcard for our collection.

Here's Window Arch!

Such a cool view from Window Arch!

Here we are on the back side of Bath Rock.

They just scrambled right up like a bunch of little mountain
goats!

Back at camp for a little downtime before lunch.

After lunch and visitor's center time, we wanted to check out Castle Rocks State Park, which is next door to City of Rocks.  It's a lot smaller, with basically one little parking area at the top to hike from.  We wanted to see the pictographs advertised on the map at the parking lot.  They were pretty faint, but still cool to spot.  Then we continued on the Around-the-Rock trail, which I think became the Over-the-Rock trail, but we aren't quite sure because the signage here left a lot to be desired.  We made it back to the car, though, so all was well.  We hopped in and started heading for home.  The kids were pooped and conked out almost immediately.  We promised them dinner at the Ranch House Diner in Snowville, so luckily they woke up before we got there.  And luckily we found a playground before that to get some much-needed wiggles out.

See if you can find these pictographs in the photos below
(it's definitely helpful to have the polarized light photos on the
sign to capture the pigment that we can't see with our eyes as
reference).

It was really beautiful in that deserty rock formation way.

Some fall colors close to the ground.

We came around the corner and saw this lovely scene so I made
the kids pose for a pic.

Here are more of those pinyon cones and nuts!

Our view as we came over the around-the-rock trail.

Watch out for the cacti!  (Gregg learned the hard way after he
got a bit of spine stuck in his toe (through his shoe, no less!))

Castle Rock of Castle Rocks State Park name.

Zonked!

bonus video!

"monkey girl"

Spider Sam

We made it home in time for bedtime, and that was a wrap on our fall break camping trip.  The weather was perfect (blue skies and low 70s!), the rocks were fun to climb, the pine nuts were plentiful, the teardrop was cozy, and the family time couldn't be beat!