Today I headed up to Chino Valley bright & early. 8:00 a.m. pickup at Andy & Brooke’s house. They called the other day and we arranged to do an early climbing day. Something different this time. “The Promised Land.”
The guides I currently have with me don’t cover Promised Land. But apparently it’s a pretty good sport climbing area outside of Chino Valley. And it’s not too far off from Sullivan Canyon, but it’s far enough! We had a little trouble finding the spot (understatement). 
Ah, Brooke & Andy are having a giggle reading this one.
We headed out along Perkinsville Road, and went in search of our “left turns”. Apparently you’re just supposed to keep going left (to a point). First we went too far towards Perkinsville, and had to turn back. Fortunately, the ride was pretty, and there were many “postcard” scenes along our route.
After getting back near the start of the road Brooke placed a call to Granite Mountain Outfitters. They carry a map of the area, and the map leads to Promised Land. We didn’t have a map (I should have searched for it yesterday). We drove and drove, went over rocks, ruts, and through a few washes. Glad to have a 4×4 Titan!
Finally we turned around. We knew we were close, but just couldn’t find the right spot. Fortunately on our ride back we ran across another truck heading in, and asked the driver if he knew about the climbing area. He did, and pointed us back toward one of the roads we tried. We were apparently close.
Finally, after many hours we found the parking area, and made our way into the canyon to see what’s what. We found that there were in fact a few obvious climbs. But we didn’t get too far in (we’d spent a long time just finding the place).
While walking in I kept looking around. The fellow who directed us in followed us in to the parking area a few minutes later. Brooke & Andy had walked a little way ahead, and I was near the truck and talked to the guy. He rolled his window down and advised me there was a mountain lion in the area. He’d seen it recently dragging a fawn near the canyon. Interesting. The other interesting item was the bolt action rifle in his front seat…..a little spooky.
Our walk in was interesting. The canyon area still had water here and there. And a few tadpoles to boot. The rocks were very “different” to say the least. For the first time ever my Chacos didn’t stick well to the rocks. Hmmm. Special rocks indeed. According to the quick note I read in the guide book (there is a quick note) the rocks are horizontally banded quartzite. Whatever the rocks were, they were slick under my chacos.
So, there’s the story today. No climbing in the end…..More than 4 hours out, 3 hours in the truck, and a warning from a fellow with a bolt action rifle in the passenger seat. Still, a nice day, great to hang out with Brooke & Andy again. Maybe we’ll climb tomorrow. Or maybe we’ll drive for hours on end again…..nah, no more long drives for me.
Oh, and if you’d like to see more pictures, click the Flickr link in the right column.
Hey, Andy, I put the picture of you pointing aimlessly off somewhere!
Entries (RSS)
Beautiful country! That huge spotted rock is just fascinating!
Guess what we did today? Put a deposit down on our 27′FB Ocean Breeze!!!!!
:-D)
Enjoy the meteor shower!
I too was fascinated by the stone — and the track. That’s one of the Verde spots we never got to…
The whole canyon was very interesting, and very different. Only a short distance away Sullivan Canyon has completely different rock formations as well. All of the rocks in the river bed had multiple types of rock fused into them. Even the climbs were speckled with white rock in brown and black rock.
And there were many more tracks than just the one I photoed. I’ll return soon, only it won’t take so long driving next time!
Oh, and Lois….. I LOVE the 27′ FB!!! You’ll have to pull it out here and visit (making me oh so jealous).
And yes, meteor shower tonight. How did you know what I’d be doing tonight???