Joshua Tree: Part 3

I awoke early the next morning with an abiding urge to split wood. The neighbors who had taken our extra spot the night before were able to provide a hatchet, much to my sleeping companions’ chagrin. As we soon learned, we had fallen victim to a common camper conundrum known as “too much meat”. The only solution to was to spend the day filling our bellies with hamburgers, hamburger helper, bacon, and a delicious delicacy known as bacon-grease toast.

From left to right: Tim, Michael, Corey

Between bouts of culinary indulgence (which also included raw vegetables and rice loaf), we mounted little expeditions into the deliciously climbable rock masses that give Jumbo Rocks its name. It’s hard to describe the giddy feeling I got from enjoying the natural beauty of the views at every turn on the unusually accessible nooks and crannies of rock that seemed to dare us to climb them. Tim in particular was transformed into an agile negotiator of rock surfaces and divides, crawling into and around crevices.

Michael and Tim are kings of all they survey

We enjoyed the sunset from the hill next to our campsite and after dark we made a tour of a loop within the Jumbo Rocks campground taking in the campy atmosphere. In the time since I had arrived, it was full to capacity and very much alive with the sights and sounds of jovial southern Californians. Exhausted and bemused, I was first to go to bed.