Joe's Valley Utah

Eleven hours of driving later and I'm now in Joe's Valley, Utah.  I made the drive day before yesterday, and after camping in the Manti-La Sal National Forest went climbing yesterday.  Today I woke up and there were huge gusts of wind blowing snow through the valley so I went into town, and here I am enjoying the free internet at the Food Ranch where I bought my groceries.

The rock here is a really cool, dark and dense sandstone.  It's featured with cracks, ledges, and occasionally pockets.  The walls of the valley are covered in boulders and pine trees, and there's still snow on the ground on the north facing sides.  It's a nice change from the deserts of Joshua Tree and Hueco Tanks.  On the climbing side of things I did one of the best V6s ever today.  Called Wheels of Fire it climbs a few big moves between ledges before a precise move to a left hand pocket which you pull up on to reach a crack.  From there you move to lip of the boulder.  It climbs so well; the foot holds are just where you want them and the hand holds are comfortable but textured.  I also did a V8, and many easier climbs yesterday.

While I don't have any pictures from here yet here are a few I took in J Tree.  I never got round to taking any climbing shots but these are still worth posting.

And here's a shot of the sunset my last night in California.

I'll post some Joe's Valley pictures sometime this week, till then bye!