''Encamped in Granite City one of the finest places of its kind in the World, I banter the World to beat it,'' John Hudson Wayman wrote in his emigrant journal while camped at City of Rocks July 12, 1852.
Congress set aside the southeastern Idaho valley of geologic oddities as a national reserve in 1988 to recognize its significance as a historical landmark on the California Trail. But today, most of the more than 70,000 people who visit the City of Rocks annually come not for not for pioneer recollection, but for world-class rappelling.
''This is the best granite face-climbing in the country,'' says Wallace Keck, superintendent of City of Rocks National Reserve and the neighboring Castle Rocks State Park. ''There are more popular and taller places to climb, but there isn't better granite for sport climbing in the U.S.''
The reason is simple.
''There is just more rock to hold on to,'' says Brad Schilling, who pioneeered many of the routes at City of Rocks and who has been the reserve's climbing ranger the past 10 years. ''Usually, granite is smooth between the crack system, but here it's unusual because there are so many places on the face to hold on to.''
Features with names like Rabbit Rock, Heartbreaker Wall, Morning Glory Spire and Bread Loaves have become popular draws for world-class technical climbers while the so-called Inner City Boulders - smaller formations that sprout skyward from fields of purple, white and yellow irises - attract newcomers as well as veterans honing their skills.
''The climbers that come here now are more likely to be in an SUV with a bullet box on top and a kiddie car seat in the back than in a beat-up old Toyota or van,'' says Schilling.
Several of the spires of rock are historic billboards that memorialize the thousands of westward settlers who passed through from 1843 until 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was completed. Names, dates and personal ads such as ''Wife Wanted" were scrawled on the rock with axle grease and tar and are still clearly visible at spots like Register Rock, which is off limits to climbing.
Although sport climbing is the main recreation magnet, the National Park Service site 200 miles southeast of Boise is morphing into a camping destination, with a 60-site recreational vehicle campground under construction this summer just outside the park's boundaries.
The new campground will be in addition to the 62 existing primitive campsites scattered at the base of features such as Bath Rock, Parking Lot Rock and the iconic Twin Sisters, dual rock cones that mark the exit from the city where wagon trains headed south into the Nevada desert and on toward California.
''With the RV campground, we will be attracting a whole new clientele,'' says Keck. ''We'll still get that just-out-of-college crowd who are into dirt camping and want the primitive sites, but we're going to get people in the new campground that may be more interested in the history than the rock climbing.''
Geologic oddities
City of Rocks National Reserve: The City of Rocks, in southern Idaho on the northern edge of the Great Basin, is open year-round. The visitor center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.
Getting there: From Boise and points west, take Interstate 84 to the Declo exit, then travel south on Idaho Route 77 to Almo and the reserve entrance. From Salt Lake City, take I-84 to the Sublette exit, then west on the county road to Almo and the entrance. Services are limited, but meals, overnight lodging, gasoline and groceries are available in nearby communities.
Guides: Exum Mountain Guides of Jackson, Wyo., and Sawtooth Guides of Stanley, Idaho, offer professionally guided climbs in the City of Rocks.
More info: http://www.nps.gov/ciro/ or call 208-824-5519
