Almo, ID is a small town of 172 people which encompasses a large area. They have a general store, a pizza shop/car repair place, an inn and a steak house.
There are two main areas to climb at in this small town... City of Rocks (free access) and Castle Rocks ($5/vehicle). There are a few places you can stay such as the Smokey Mountain Camping ($20+ per night) but they do have awesome showers ($3) or there's the City of Rocks campground ($12/night). There's also the bunk house at Castle Rock that sleeps twelve and is $12.95/person/night and you have to go to the Visitor Center to make a reservation. We got the hook up and were told about the FREE camping. Down the main road in town till the road turns into dirt and right after you pass the cattle guard you take a right.
Most of you might of heard of Castle Rocks... It has the infamous 40+ move roof climb "war path" along with many rope climbs for both the trad climber and the bolt clipper... We unfortunately didn't bring our rope and gear, so I won't be able to tell you much about that.
What I can tell you is that the "taco roof" is an amazing formation of rock that we are fortunate to climb on. There's a few different lines on. Most of which are a little bit "morpho" and hopefully I'll be able to figure out some beta before we leave to send a few of these boulders.
Jimmy and I explored the boulders that surround the 'taco cave' and were surprised at the amount of untouched rock. There is a great amount of potential out here and hopefully more climbs get developed as the news spreads.
As of now, due to the goverement closing down nationals parks (which I think is ridiculous but there's a time and place for that rant) City of Rocks has limited access. Some of the land is owned by the state so as climbers we have access to that part of the land. Jimmy and I hiked around to explore the large amount of rocks that litter the area. Unfortunately most of the rock is choss with the occasional dyno boulder or some morpho (I hate that word) boulders. We were able to find a few boulders that had the potential of being good climbs.
The best part of this trip has been being together with Jimmy (and Oreo). Even though we had an epic time getting here due to snow in wyoming we have enjoyed our whole time here. I'm really grateful to have these guys in my life.
The main purpose of this trip was for Jimmy to try and send 'war path'. It took him four tries over a four day period. First day he fell off the move over the lip. Same for the two tries on the second day. Then we took a rest day which involved a lot of hiking around. And the fourth day he did it his first try and made it look easy. I am so proud of him for accomplishing one of his goals. Watching him over the years has empowered me to become a better climber and I'm psyched to see what the future brings.
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