Joshua Tree 10/6/07

Excellent trip to Joshua Tree. A little chilly, maybe 55 degrees, which created some cold fingers, but way better than the 105 when we were in San Diego.

We drove down on Friday night and stayed in 29 Palms at the Holiday Inn Express-perfect for the trip, highly recommended.

We met John (our instructer) and Jennifer (our climbing partner) at 8 am and were off to Playhouse rock for our day's climb. We spent about 2 hours reviewing the figure 8 knot and practicing our belaying techniques and then...climb on.

We each got in 2 climbs before we broke for lunch, which wasn't really the plan, John told us just to graze through the day, but we had other ideas. We then climbed on right up until 5pm. Exhausting, but great. Gary even accomplished a 5.9 route-quite a feat for his 2nd time out.

John was a great instructor, when we wanted to quit, he wouldn't hear of it. Most excellent day on the rocks. If your going, we highly recommend John and his crew at Wilderness Outings http://www.wildernessoutings.com/, they climb in Joshua Tree and Mission Trails in San Diego.


Found a great restaurant in Joshua Tree (the town), Crossroads Cafe & Tavern. Even went back for lunch today it was so great.

Pictures-double click to see them bigger.

A joshua tree


Playhouse rock at sunset


Gary on his 5.9 kicker

Laurie with Jennifer belaying

Laurie going up