Southern California Pt. 2

After a week in Oceanside we left Pirate with Rebecca's family and went to Joshua Tree NP. This was the view from our campsite.




We did a night hike to Skull Rock.


Rebecca tried to tell creepy ghost stories.


This is her climbing up Skull Rock making scary faces. Looks like a still form the movie "The Ring".


Atop of Ryan Mountain.


The cacti and wild flowers were in full bloom.


Our dinner of teriyaki noodles, fresh portabella mushrooms and frozen veggies.


The next day turned out to be an epic day of hiking, scrambling and rock climbing. We were given sketchy directions to a sport climbing crag (J-Tree has mostly trad climbing) and without a guidebook we were certain that we would get lost. Fortunately, we ran into a group of climbers at the trailhead parking lot that were going to the same area.


About 2 miles later we arrived at the crag. Now we had to scramble and haul all of our gear over and around huge boulders. It is the most work I've had to do in order to get to a climbing area. Maybe I'm just spoiled with Pilot Mountain's easy approach. That's Claire, Melody, and Jess.


Mario getting ready for a multi-pitch climb.


Te next day Rebecca and I climbed at The Hall of Horrors. The hike took us a whole 5 minutes from the parking lot. Haha. Rebecca set up her first top rope and rappelled for only the second time. We climbed a handful of routes that day and Rebecca got to practice setting up top ropes and rapping down.


Back in Oceanside. We took the Coaster down to San Diego for the Little Italy Art Walk.