Rock Climbing at Pinnacles NM

This weekend we finally got out to go climbing outdoors! We went to Pinnacles National Monument, which is about 2 hours south of the Bay Area. It is a park which lies along the San Andreas fault, and its used to be an old volcano which was eroded away into weird rock formations and pinnacles. There are trails through the park, and two "caves" which formed when deep small canyons got buried in huge boulders. You can hike through the canyon "caves" which are mostly dark, since they are covered in rock debris. There's only a little bit of room to walk through, if you have a flashlight. We didn't bring one, because we went rock climbing. Next time we will visit the caves.

The rock is strange. It is a conglomerate of tiny pebbles, all cemented together like concrete. It has a reddish hue, like molten lava. The rock is scary to climb on because it is loose sometimes, but it was interesting and fun. Here are some pictures: