We spent part of one day bouldering, which was particularly entertaining since once upon a time, Todd climbed a lot.
Scott, aka BeetleMan, carrying two crash pads.
Everyone else was amused.
We found some good boulders to play on at a picnic area.
Nim claimed her own section of the rock and wouldn't let Chad share,
but she did happily share another rock with Cat.
Kids had fun climbing,
as did adults. I went up the flake in the center of the wide part of the boulder pile, and then climbed the crack to the right of that too. And then the backside, and the side side and ...
Chad found fun problems to work on too,
and proved that even the adults were goofy at the top!
Chilling on the crash pad. There's not much shade at high noon.
Sarah managed to find the one patch of shade from a Joshua tree.
After a picnic lunch huddled in the shade of that Joshua tree, we headed over to another part of the park, ostensibly to hike to the Lost Horse Mine.
Unfortunately, I inadvertently led us astray onto the Big Trees Trail instead (there was a trail on the ground that wasn't on my map, and we went down the wrong fork).
There were lots of good Joshua Trees,
and the yucca and cactus were blooming,
but poor Scott was sad to miss the mine.
Nim would have you think she hiked 18 miles, but reality was about 1/5 of that.
Unfortunately, Todd sprained his ankle in the sand on the trail and had to hobble out. While they went to get it looked at, Chad, Nimue, and I went to the store to get more firewood, and concocted a plan to feed all the kids back at the campsite while Todd was getting checked out.
I suppose there also was a coffee stop for us at a place one of Sarah's friends had recommended. Mmmm....nitrogen-infused cold brew is a wonderful thing on a hot afternoon.
We were lucky to enjoy a nice full moon that evening.
and Chad dutifully cooked hot dogs, quesadillas, and made a fire
as we watched the sunset colors slowly dim through the crazy plants.
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