Kissing Couple

Brian and I hired a babysitter over the weekend and hit the road.  Saturday afternoon we drove out to Colorado National Monument.  It is a slightly shorter drive than the Black Canyon or Moab and has some good climbing!

Sunday morning, we climbed a route on Kissing Couple and did Otto's Route on Independence Monument in the afternoon.  After an adventure hike out of the canyon, we hopped in the car and headed back home.  It was just the two of us which was great.

I just learned about the panorama feature on my phone's camera.  So, here is the shot from the road before we headed down into the canyon.  The previous night was warm and Sunday morning was beautiful.

View from the road

We've climbed the Kissing Couple before but it was a good route.  The first pitch is real climbing and the rest is easy chimney type stuff.  You get some cool positions and views which makes it a route worth repeating.

From the start of Kissing Couple route
The tall shadow is the Kissing Couple Tower

Kissing Couple is large tower in middle

At a belay part way up the Kissing Couple

At one of the belays, someone etched "Far Out!" into the rock.  While an accurate assessment, it is pretty lame, in my opinion.

Rock Graffiti

We didn't see any other climbers (or non-climbers, even) once we left the road.  Nice to get that "wild space" feeling in a popular area.

Summit Photo - Kissing Couple 

We were down from Kissing Couple around 1:00 and decided to blast over to Independence Monument to climb Otto's Route.  It is really easy, but has an interesting history.  In the late 1800s, John Otto climbed the route by pounding metal pole sections into the rock (sandstone is pretty soft) and chipping out footholds.  For years after, he would climb the route on the 4th of July and place fly a flag atop the monument.  The metal pole sections are mostly gone, but the footholds and drilled holes are still there.  This was the most contrived route I've ever climbed.

Independence Monument is middle tower
Taken from Kissing Couple

Due to the ease of this climb, many many folks climb this route.  It is covered in graffiti.  I was amazed.

Graffiti
Some chipped holds on the left and a drilled hole on right

Kissing Couple from Summit of Independence Monument

Summit Photo - Independence Monument

Rare (non-self portrait) photo of the family photog!

Yea!  Two desert trips in a row.  Not bad, not bad.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...  Marisa stayed with Logan and Eden while we were gone.  On Sunday morning they made pancakes and then went to the Butterfly Pavilion.  Seemed like they had a great time.

Chef Logan

Watching Butterflies

Goofin' Around as a Butterfly