Ok, so I’m writing this post two days post-facto due to service spottier than a Dalmatian. We have next to zero service in the Red Rock Canyon park, at the Red Rock campground, and unluckily in any other place we have camped. Right now we are parked in a giant Home Depot lot which was flat enough to serve our purpose of cooking dinner (Thai curry with Minute brown rice, yum!). I’ll keep this short since I promised Jason my blogging would be fairly brief so we can get to bed soon and rest up for a big day tomorrow.
We have just barely arrived in Red Rock Canyon, and the sandstone is wet! This is a huge problem, because unless you want to incur the wrath of the climbing gods and the climbing community, you do NOT climb on wet sandstone. It’s practical, as well as looking out for the longevity of the rock - sandstone will crumble easily when wet, more so than other rocks like limestone or granite.
Therefore, we went on a hike and explored the approach route to a big route we will do on March 9th when we have a good weather window. The route we want to do is called “Solar Slab”, it is quite easy, quite popular, and we expect it will take 14 hrs so any preview of the approach route is useful!
Shannon, I brought along the gorgeous mug you made me!
We dubbed these “neuron plants”
Pictured below is Jason along the route to our next big objective - if only the sandstone would dry faster!
Oh yeah - we also climbed! Not on sandstone of course, but on limestone nearby. Who knew that 15 min away from Red Rock Canyon lies impeccable limestone crags?! We enjoyed the climbing, and I really enjoyed the barrel (?) cactus almost as much. They spot the cliffside like pimples on a teenagers cheek, but much, much more charming. So maybe more like freckles. ;) I love the cacti out here - they remind me of our previous trip to El Potrero Chico in Mexico where we had to deal with keeping cactus spines out of our rope!
