I drove along the dirt road as the landscape stretched out in front of me along the horizon. The skies were a picture perfect blue with white clouds whisping throughout the air, the sun dancing back and forth behind them. The rolling hills of gold and brown rock reached out forever with dots of green sage growing wherever life could handle it. It was late fall but the temperatures were still in the upper 80’s. I finally came around to a parking lot and saw the main attraction, a towering set of rocks scraping up into the sky resembling Pride Rock from the Lion King. I thought I could hear Captain Kirk yelling for me to come help him, so I grabbed my phaser and my camera and set off.
You may recognize Vasquez Rocks as the set from your favorite old show or movie. It’s been featured on everything from Zorro, to Star Trek (the same location standing in for multiple planets), The Flintstones and many others. My personal favorite is Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. This is where their robot clones kill them and they team up with Death. As I walk out to the formations, scenes from these movies flash through my mind and my excitement grows.
As I started to make my way up, jumping from rock to rock, I saw people growing in size the closer I got. There weren’t that many, only two or three groups, and all of them afraid to climb higher than two thirds up, where the cliffs became near vertical. As I came up, they came down, and my anticipation grew as I got closer to the top. I had brought my drone, planning on getting some amazing shots from up above. The more I climbed though, the more shear the cliffs became and pretty soon I was looking straight down with my footholds shrinking to less than an eighth of my foots surface. I was literally hanging off the side. The bouldering had started and my spirits soared.
I made it almost to the top, stopping about fifteen feet from it as the traction on my shows was thin and the wind was speeding up. If I wanted to get any drone shots, they would have to be from here as I couldn’t realistically maneuver any higher. As I turned my drone on though, it informed me I was in a no fly zone. My heart sunk a little, but as I looked out over the vast rolling hills, I decided there wasn’t any way I could be unsatisfied. I was looking out at the earth, knowing I had once again conquered one of my goals and my heart sang. I wasn’t done yet though. There were other cliffs to climb before the sun set. None were quite as amazing as this one though.
After a few more hours jumping between rocks, it was time to leave and I drove back to Los Angeles watching the sky turn to pink as the sun began to set. It always amazes me that there is this much nature so close to such a vast city. I sped around the back roads taking the curves way too fast thinking about how amazing California truly is.
Closest Supercharger: Santa Clarita CA 19 mi
24061 Newhall Ranch Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91355
Vasquez Rocks
10700 Escondido Canyon Rd, Agua Dulce, CA 91350
