On the Rocks

Since the BH Tolman Reunion was on a Saturday in Raft River & Burley, and the following Monday Ammon had a golf tournament in Aberdeen, we decided to make a weekend family vacation out of it. On Saturday night, we stayed in a hotel, and visited cousin Brenda's family at her home in Jerome. On Sunday morning, we went into Twin Falls to get some groceries, and then we drove to the City of Rocks National Reserve near Almo in south central Idaho. We stopped at the Visitors Center and got the boys all souvenir T-shirts. Outside of the Visitors Center is an old horse-drawn wagon. The City of Rocks was once part of the California Trail, and in the mid-1800's, wagon parties used the trail to get to California to look for gold.

When we first arrived in the park, we had a picnic lunch by the "Bread Loaves" rock formations. Then we drove to "Bath Rock". 

We started walking around it, climbing a few boulders as we went.

Josh outclimbed the boys, of course!

We found a few cool things on the walk, like some squirrels, some wildflowers, and the best treasure of the day, this: 

When we got to the backside of bath rock, all of us made our way up it. The younger boys loved using the bag of chalk, and they said they were all able to climb because of it! They clapped their hands on it every few minutes! It was like a magic powder that made them superhero climbers!

The younger 3 boys and I made it 2/3 of the way up, and we stopped where we felt comfortable.

Ammon and Josh climbed all the way to the top of it. The top of the giant rock formation is depressed, so it gathers water when it rains, which is why it's called "Bath Rock".

After we climbed back down, and finished walking around it, then we began hiking along a trail between Bath Rock and Parking Lot Rock. It was a good trail, that was almost 2 miles round trip, with lots of natural things to see.

Then we drove to Elephant Rock, and climbed up its backside, too. There were lots of rock climbers and rapellers around, and it was interesting to watch them and go up and down with their ropes.

  

We were having a great time, but then the weather started turning sour and a storm blew in, so we decided to leave. We were only there for just over 4 hours, but the boys all loved it! It was the first time any of us had ever been there, and now it's another Idaho gem that I'm glad we've seen!