Joshua Tree National Park

Many of you already know that Joshua Tree National Park is literally right behind our house. We haven't yet visited it yet because many factors; weather (it was just too hot in early fall,) cost, and timing (we were gone most of the autumn season.)

Wow! Were we missing out! We finally spent a beautifully warm Saturday afternoon hiking in the Park. We had so much fun! JTNP is like a giant jungle gym for grown-ups. I like to say, "When God created the Grand Canyon (which isn't too far from here,) He scooped out all the rocks and piled them up in this area." Just piles and piles of boulders. And they are so fun to climb. You can look at mountain and say I'm gonna climb all the way up there. AND YOU CAN! One rock at a time.

This was a 20 minute climb for this gorgeous view!

JTNP is a nationally known as a rock climbing and repelling mecca. Every flat wall had dangling climbers hanging off the side. Sometimes you'd see something at the top of a rock mountain, and then realize that it's a person. How the heck did you get up there? How fun!

Whose up there up on those rocks?

Oh, it's just me...climber girl Alicia

We bought a park pass, so we will definitely be returning. We have so much more of the park to visit. I can't believe all of this is just behind our house!

Watching the climbers was very entertaining.

It's sometimes difficult to relay the scale of some of the mountains around Joshua Tree. Here's a little perspective on how big this rock was. That's a climber up there!