This past weekend, my boyfriend and I, packed our gear and headed out to Joshua Tree National Park.
We only had the two days over the weekend, so to make the most of our time, we caught a Friday night flight after work out of JFK and returned on a redeye Sunday night to be back in NYC Monday morning, just in time for work.
Although we were only away for a short two days, it felt like a good vacation, relaxed, action packed, and lots of variety and exploration.
Added bonus, this trip was intended as a mileage run, since we needed to fly one more time to get bonus points on our airline. The flights worked out to be cheap, as did the car rental.
Friday night, we arrived on a nonstop flight to Burbank, CA. The drive from the airport to our hotel in Yucca Valley, CA was roughly over two hours. Of course, we stopped for some dinner at In-N-Out Burger on the way.
Climbs at JTree are mostly short, one pitched routes. Some are along the side of the road and easily accessed. Others require a slightly longer approach. We tried to keep our first trip out here, a little easier, by selecting climbs in different areas that are easier to get to.
To get a good taste and feel of the area, we started off with Upper Right Ski Track (5.3) at Intersection Rock. Then headed over to The Bong (5.5) on The Blob. We then tried Toe Crack (5.7) before packing up for lunch outside the park at JT Country Kitchen to escape the midday heat.
We would have done more climbs, but we got lost trying to find each of the climbs. Particularly, trying to orient ourselves with Intersection Rock when we first arrived. Probably should have paid attention more to the signs as we were driving by.
After lunch, we wanted to head out to Rock Garden Valley by Lost Horse Road to check off some more moderate climbs. Once again, we got lost, and ended up in Happy Valley. We had no idea where we were until we ran into a guide group who said they were by Altantis (5.7). With only maybe 2 hours left in daylight, we turned around and decided to check out another area closer to the road. So we ended up by the Hemmingway area to climb White Horse (5.7). When we were done, the full moon was rising and the sun started to set. The sky was lit in brilliant colors.
Sunday, we headed back to the park in our quest to find Rock Garden Valley. After some arduous boulder scrambling, we ended up by Swiss Cheese and Lower Rock Valley Garden. We weren't in the mood to boulder hop, to find the Main Wall in Rock Garden. So we settled on climbing Swiss Cheese and The Treat (5.7).
Afterwards, we packed up and headed out for food and showered at Coyote Corner.
With lots of time to spare before our flight, we headed out to Hollywood to see the Hollywood sign. Then we chased the sunset at Santa Monica beach.
Traffic turned out to be horrible back to Burbank for our flight, but we still managed to squeeze in one more stop at In-N-Out before heading home.
We only had the two days over the weekend, so to make the most of our time, we caught a Friday night flight after work out of JFK and returned on a redeye Sunday night to be back in NYC Monday morning, just in time for work.
Although we were only away for a short two days, it felt like a good vacation, relaxed, action packed, and lots of variety and exploration.
Added bonus, this trip was intended as a mileage run, since we needed to fly one more time to get bonus points on our airline. The flights worked out to be cheap, as did the car rental.
Friday night, we arrived on a nonstop flight to Burbank, CA. The drive from the airport to our hotel in Yucca Valley, CA was roughly over two hours. Of course, we stopped for some dinner at In-N-Out Burger on the way.
Climbs at JTree are mostly short, one pitched routes. Some are along the side of the road and easily accessed. Others require a slightly longer approach. We tried to keep our first trip out here, a little easier, by selecting climbs in different areas that are easier to get to.
To get a good taste and feel of the area, we started off with Upper Right Ski Track (5.3) at Intersection Rock. Then headed over to The Bong (5.5) on The Blob. We then tried Toe Crack (5.7) before packing up for lunch outside the park at JT Country Kitchen to escape the midday heat.
We would have done more climbs, but we got lost trying to find each of the climbs. Particularly, trying to orient ourselves with Intersection Rock when we first arrived. Probably should have paid attention more to the signs as we were driving by.
After lunch, we wanted to head out to Rock Garden Valley by Lost Horse Road to check off some more moderate climbs. Once again, we got lost, and ended up in Happy Valley. We had no idea where we were until we ran into a guide group who said they were by Altantis (5.7). With only maybe 2 hours left in daylight, we turned around and decided to check out another area closer to the road. So we ended up by the Hemmingway area to climb White Horse (5.7). When we were done, the full moon was rising and the sun started to set. The sky was lit in brilliant colors.
Sunday, we headed back to the park in our quest to find Rock Garden Valley. After some arduous boulder scrambling, we ended up by Swiss Cheese and Lower Rock Valley Garden. We weren't in the mood to boulder hop, to find the Main Wall in Rock Garden. So we settled on climbing Swiss Cheese and The Treat (5.7).
Afterwards, we packed up and headed out for food and showered at Coyote Corner.
With lots of time to spare before our flight, we headed out to Hollywood to see the Hollywood sign. Then we chased the sunset at Santa Monica beach.
Traffic turned out to be horrible back to Burbank for our flight, but we still managed to squeeze in one more stop at In-N-Out before heading home.
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