We still had our English friend from Australia with us and were trying to drive in convoy. We agreed we
would stop and have a coffee at Atomic City as we all though it sounded quite
interesting. We thought with a name like
that it must have something good going on but how wrong were we!!
It was a small collection of extremely
derelict buildings and a bar which didn’t look much from the outside and was
even less on the inside… when we first went in we thought the place had been
ransacked – even by my standards it was a mess!!!
There were a few locals in
the main bar bit and they were friendly enough but it was tiny and a bit
daunting so we bought pop and carried on. Getting to City of Rocks went
according to plan and we were told which were likely camping spots and we went
off hoping we would find some shade as the temperatures were hitting the mid
30’s. we checked every possible available
camping and only one was left!! As it happens it was quite nice site – limited
shade but still quite nice – we moved the picnic table to take advantage of the
shade had a beer and waited for it to cool down so we could put up the tents!
City of Rocks is a large area of rocks!! Huge granite lumps making
fabulous skylines and a heaven for any climbers. Most of the climbing requires serious
equipment so Dr Fred and friend were limited to bouldering but both were very
excited.
We had a pleasant evening once it got cooler and the next morning got up
early - it would have been hard to stay in bed as the sun was shining and the
temperatures were already rising so before it got too hot we went for a walk
around the rocks, the boys were looking for suitable climbing places and
eventually they found something they were happy with and I found a nice space
to sit in the shade and draw this old twisted tree which had loads of twirls
and texture. The boys went off to do
some scrambling around.
It got very hot very quick, the climbing got hard so we gave up and
headed into town and found this cafe called Rock City which looked
interesting. There was a old broken down
truck sat outside – it even had a wasps nest /honey comb in it – I t just sat
there like so much scrap seems to every where you look in the states… Rock City
and had a very nice pizza – massively huge and very tasty.
It was so hot we just couldn’t think what to do- 38 degrees and no easy
shade… so we thought we would explore the Castle Rocks. We walked round them but it was just tooooo
hot and there was practically no shade so we pretty much marched around before
we went back to Rock City and had a cold drink before heading back to camp and
hoping the shade had hit the picnic table which it had! After hanging out for a bit, Dr Fred went off
and did so more scrambling about, we went down to the steak house and had a
very tasty steak and pioneer pudding – and then back to camp to have a little
party to celebrate our Aussies mates last night with us.
Its been a very hot two days with temperatures in the mid 30’s but
amazingly there is still snow up on the peaks.
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