We drove to City of Rocks from Twin Falls, Idaho via Highways 30 and 77.

City of Rocks Visitor Center, Almo

The Visitor Center is near the southern end of the small town of Almo. It is in a beautifully restored old house. It is small, but has a nice display of books and park related information. They have a few souvenir type items for sale. The woman behind the counter was very helpful when we asked her questions about the trails in the park.

Cathedral Rocks State Park

The Reserve Visitor Center also has information on the Cathedral Rocks State Park, which is visible from the Visitor Center. That looks to be an impressive area as well, although it seems to be contained within a much smaller area, and closer up to the mountains. It does not seem to be fully developed at this time.

City of Rocks National Reserve

The east entrance to the Reserve is just a short distance down a graded gravel road. There is no entrance fee. All of the roads within the Reserve are gravel or dirt.

Circle Creek Overlook

This was a short drive up into the foothills with great views of a good portion of the Reserve. It is also the trailhead for the Lower North Fork Circle Creek Trail.

Camp Rock

Camp Rock is along the south side of the road and is worth at least a quick walk around. Here you'll find the names of some of those who camped here along their overland journey to California during the mid-1800s. The names were applied using axle grease and are still very clear in many areas.

Boxtop Trail

We parked in the campground with sites 10 through 26, at the Boxtop Trailhead. The GPS gave us the coordinates of N 42 04 255, W 113 42 424 with 16 feet accuracy. The elevation was 6,264 feet above sea level.

We started the hike late in the day, for us, at about 10:30 a.m. But the temperature was only about 80 and there was a pleasant breeze that kept things from getting too warm. There is a vault toilet at the campground.

South Fork Circle Creek Trailhead

We hiked north along the Boxtop Trail about .6 miles to its junction with the South Fork Circle Creek Trailhead. The footing was firm and easy to walk on. Through juniper and pinyon and other high desert shrubs and grasses. The trail trends mostly downward until you cross a narrow, shallow creek. It had some water flowing in it on this day. It would probably have more if it had been a wet year, or if it were earlier in the season.

Lower North Fork Circle Creek Trailhead

There is a sign at the junction. We proceeded north toward the Stripe Rock until we came to the junction with a trail coming in from the east, from the Lower North Fork Circle Creek Trailhead, near Cyclops. Here we took the westward trending route. This area became more rocky and in the area of the junction with the South Fork Circle Creek Trail the trail was very sandy and a little difficult to walk on. But the farther up the trail we went the more compact the surface became. The trail climbs a bit along this loop until you turn back toward the south and begin a descent.

We soon encountered climbers along the Bumble and Transform rocks area, and we could see several more ahead of us on the Flaming Rock. From time to time we could hear their shouts as they passed information back and forth. We spoke to one fellow about how they get their rope back down once they've reached the top and come back down. It's too complex for this current discussion.

After we got to this area the trails got a bit more confused. There are all sorts of side trails that are probably there because of, or for, the climbers. Some do not appear on the trail map available from the Visitor Center. Along the west side of Slabbage we took the wrong path and ended up climbing high along this outcrop, until the trail disappeared in a forested area. We backtracked down to the trail along the creek and took the other fork, which turned out to be the correct trail. But I had expended considerable energy climbing up along Slabbage and my knees and legs were beginning to weaken. This was our first real hike of the season and I have to admit I was not in shape. When the trail began to climb as we approached the junction with the trail to the Drilling Fields I began to struggle.

In this area there is a lot of underbrush and we saw what might have been Poison Ivy. So be cautious.
When we climbed to the east side of Parking Lot Rock I convinced Anne to call it quits for the day. Our original intent was to hike up to the Upper North Fork Circle Creek Trailhead and then take the Tea Kettle Trail back around to the Boxtop Trailhead where our car was parked. But since I was running out of gas, we exited the trail system at Parking Lot Rock and walked the road back down to the Boxtop Trailhead. To the Parking Lot Rock parking area it was a 3.49 mile hike. Pretty meager for us, I'm ashamed to say. The elevation there was 6,628. The GPS indicated that we'd climbed a total of 1,100 feet throughout the hike. By the time we made it back to our car we had walked 5.1 miles.

Interesting Note: There was a guy, probably a Reserve worker, driving a pickup truck up and down the road, pulling a weighted contraption that was made up of a series of old tires. They looked to be weighted. Apparently he was trying to press the gravel into the ground so that it isn't so rocky.

Camp Sites

After we kicked off our boots, ate a little trail food for lunch, and relaxed a bit, we drove through the Reserve and looked at the various camp sites to see which we liked best, making a note of those. Most of the sites are very exposed, especially to afternoon and evening sun. They might be pleasant in the spring and fall, but our guess is that they could be pretty hot in the summer months. Most of the sites are not suited for campers, trailers, RVs, and pop-ups, and many can handle only small tents. There are no services, no dump stations, and only a few vault toilets scattered among the sites, which are strung out along the road, for the most part. In addition, the sites each have a tent pad marked out, but the pads seem small and it would be hard to find a site with enough room for a larger tent.

So we checked out the sites with our needs in mind. We looked for sites with afternoon and evening shade, and which had adequate space for our larger Kirkham tent. The Reserve does reserve campsites in advance. That makes it really nice when traveling long distances to get there.

Return Trip

The gravel road through the reserve continues on for about 20 miles to the old Mormon town of Oakley. From there the paved road, Highway 27, goes north to Burley.

We then took I-84 (exit 208) back toward Twin Falls. We got off at the Hansen exit (exit 182) and drove across the Hansen Bridge over the Snake River. There was very little water in that section of the gorge. Perhaps everything else is held behind a dam above and below.

Critters

We thought we saw a Golden Eagle over a field as we drove toward Oakley. We also saw several Turkey Vultures over the Reserve, several different hawks, including a Red Tailed Hawk and a Sparrow Hawk. Along the hike we saw several small lizards as they scampered for cover. As we were driving along the dirt road toward Oakley we came upon two female mule deer. At the trailhead within the Reserve we found two plastic zip lock bags, each with a snake of some sort inside. They might have been preserved in formaldehyde or alcohol. Someone's science project, perhaps. But all wildlife in national reserves is protected.