On the road again: Colorado to British Columbia

We left Colorado on June 17^th and traveled north and west to eventually land over the border in British Columbia. On our way we made a few stops to climb: at Vedauwoo in Wyoming (just to see, no climbing there), at Maple Canyon south of Salt Lake City in Utah, and at City of Rocks in southern Idaho. We also spent a day at Mt Rainier National Park in Washington. It was an amazing 10 days, we traveled through some gorgeous areas (and some flattish, boring areas too!), enjoyed some new climbing spots and I went through 3 states I’d never been in before!

Maple Canyon was just okay, the rock was very interesting, it’s called cobble and it’s made up of smooth river stones embedded in a natural concrete. Cool in theory, but not all that pretty to look at and just mediocre to climb on. Oh well, now we know what it’s like at least!

City of Rocks was phenomenal, so it more than made up for Maple! The formations there were great, a lot like what we saw in Joshua Tree but in high desert, so there were a lot more trees and shrubs. But it was still hot!! We really enjoyed the climbing there, and there’s an almost infinite amount of it, so we’ll definitely have to go back someday and spend some more time there.

After our 3 days we packed up again and moved on, this time through Oregon and into Washington to stop at Mt. Rainier. There was still an unbelievable amount of snow there! Banks over 8 feet high on the side of the road! We did a little walking around (the forest is just incredible! I’ve never seen trees so big!), Mike hiked a little ways up onto the mountain (in the snow, in his sneakers!) and then we headed out to make our way towards the border. We were planning to meet up with our friends Jamie and Ellen once we got up there, but oddly enough we just happened to be driving through Seattle at exactly the same time! We stopped to say hi and catch up a bit, then they continued driving up to Squamish (about 3 more hours) while we decided to stop for the night and take a break since it was after 8:00. The next day we got back in the car for the last leg of this particular journey, crossed the border into Canada and made our way slooowly up to Squamish (delayed several hours by an accident on the highway). And now we’re happily esconced in a campground at the base of a 2000 foot granite cliff with more rock in a 30 mile radius than can be climbed in a lifetime! But, more about that next time!

Northwest jaunt