Great day in City of Rocks!! - Check my photo album to see lots of great formations!

September 9 – Although it was 44 when I got up this morning, it turned out to be a super day weather wise!  By the time we had breakfast and were ready to head out, I didn’t even need my jacket.  Bill wore long sleeves because of the sun, but was not needed for the cold!

Reproduction of wagon that
was on Oregon/California Trail

We drove up to the visitor center to pick up a map for hikes.  They have a nice video about City of Rocks National Preserve.  We discovered it is in 2 parts and we ended up going to the part that was more popular for camping and seeing the formations.

Since this area was home to a portion of the California Trail

A small section

(cut off from Oregon), we stopped a Camp Rock, which was huge and had many names engraved during the wagon train time frame.  Weather is not the rock’s friend, nor the swallows nesting whose debris doesn’t help.  There are several other rocks of similar nature.  They also have a Register Rock like we visited near Massacre State Park. 

Elephant Rock at a distance

We stopped for a long time to watch rock climbers going up and down Elephant Rock.  (Bill and I agreed it looks more like a whale than an elephant).  There was a 3 girl team that was trading off being at the top or being the climber.  There were a couple

Going up!!

sets of guy climbers as well.  Some sat on the top, some waited at the bottom and some were going up and down. 

Further along the road was a campground that had a Practice Rock.  It was much shorter and safer if you fall for

Resting on top!

lack of experience.  There were 2 guys on it “practicing”.

The views through out the park are amazing.  So many different formations and that is due to different rock materials that formed at different time frames of volcanic activity.  I needed to take more panoramic shots for sure!

We stopped to see the Window Arch and ended up taking

Window Arch

lots of photos in the small area.  There was a tree perfect for us to sit in and get out photo taken, and other precariously settled boulders for

Luckily a couple came by and took it for us!

staging as well.  We met a nice couple from Arizona and we traded info on places to see and do.

From there we drove the road out to Twin Sisters.  It’s an unsual formation of 2 peaked upheavals right beside each other Tand they are entirely different kinds of

Twin Sisters

rock.  They formed in 2 different time periods and over time became exposed.  The area by them is where the wagon trains went through on to California. 

Cool formation

It was past time for lunch and we wanted to go to Tracy General Store in operation since 1894.  It started as a log cabin structure and was added on to in a couple of stages to a decent size place that also houses the tiny local US Post

Good lunch spot!

Office.  We decided to have lunch there.  They bake there sandwich rolls each day and bake HUGE cookies.  Not like we needed cookies but they had Snickerdoodles and I haven’t made them in ages.  So I had a turkey sandwich and Bill had ham and you put all the toppings and dressing on your self.  We shared a cookie!  Then Bill decided he hadn’t had a milkshake in 50 years!  Yeah, like I believed that!  So he had a small Huckleberry milkshake.  I was way too stuff to even think of having one!

The Silver Bullet did great on the unpaved roads!

Molly was happy to see us when we got back.  Bill attempted to take a nap but didn’t stay down long.  I did some crocheting and then got out the laptop to download the many photos I took today.  It was pretty much chill time.

Once dinner time rolled around I got out leftovers and nuked some fresh broccoli to top it off.  We finished the peach jello pie tonight so there’s a bit more room in the fridge.  I’m going to try a pot roast in the crockpot while we drive tomorrow.  I got a recipe from Patty, that I met this summer that I hope to see for lunch when we get to Tucson.  Patty is a friend of Sherri’s and was at Valley View visiting for a week.  She made it for them and they said it was delicious.  So, always looking for new recipes!

We got showers and I put in a load of laundry so we can dump the tank in the morning before we leave.  Not sure what hook ups we will get at the rally, of course, hoping for full hook up.

Time to read a while and get ready for heading out tomorrow at 45 MPH!!!  Bummer!