Christmas in Joshua Tree

We have spent the last ten days back at our Indian Cove campsite at Joshua Tree. It's been beautifully sunny every day, with only a few days that were a bit windy. We’ve climbed at least a little most days, and done one nice hike from Indian Cove up into the higher areas of the park. Much like Disneyland, this “rest day” was more tiring than any of our climbing days to date.

Climbing here is very low-key, so we have had plenty of time to catch up on sleep (from the last few years I think!!), study Biology (Megan is taking a distance education course), and learn the fiddle (Dave). We’ve also discovered backgammon, and played many games during the long winter evenings.

With the help of our Outback Oven, we did not miss out on a classic Christmas dinner. We successfully cooked a delicious turkey breast, accompanied by cranberry, mashed potatoes and carrots. With pumpkin pie for dessert and a bottle of red wine we were quite festive.

Christmas Day was a bit windy and chilly, so we didn’t climb much, but Boxing Day was windless and warm, so we cancelled a planned rest day and went climbing again. Despite our early worries Megan’s hand/wrist is behaving pretty well, and it held up fine when Dave’s bad memory sent her on a route that was a bit too hard for this stage of her rehab. As mentioned in earlier entries, routes in Joshua Tree tend to be hard for their grade, and can also vary quite a bit from route to route. This is at least partly due to the friable nature of the rock and the fact that the guidebook hasn’t been updated since Dave was last here (1994).