When the weather clears up, we’re ready to get out of town and on the rock again. Since we’re now familiar with the Prophesy Wall area, snagging the best campsite near the wall is much easier. Now the situation is very nice – we’re stocked up, charged up, have a good phone signal, and are right next to a climbing area. It’s simple to get a quick climbing session in as well as a full work day, so long as there’s enough sun to give us some solar power. And this is what we do, with a little exploratory hiking mixed in.

Saturday we venture on to the second pitch of two routes, the first time we’ve done this in a while. The first goes well enough to attempt the second, which also goes well despite the fact that I misremember the grade, mistaking it for a different route. Luckily I make it over a big roof and to the top anyway. There is a search and rescue group training dogs below us all the while. They are impressive, and thankfully unneeded by us today.

Sunday we rest from climbing, but hike to another area in the vicinity, The Underworld. This is a nice looking cliff of columnar basalt, but our highlight for the day is the cottonwood-strewn Santa Clara river, which had completely escaped our attention until now. A nicer lunch spot would be hard to find near our base camp.

Monday morning we do two single pitch routes before putting our bathroom into shower mode in preparation for a trip back to town to resupply on Tuesday. There’s still plenty to keep us occupied in this spot if we care to return.

Routes: Sticky Revelations p. 1 & 2, 5.8, Whatever Happens, Happens 5.9, The Roofs of Jericho p3, 5.10a?, Non-technical Church Socks 5.8, Elizabeth C. Moss 5.9 (groove on that slab finish)