Rock climber dangles from a rope as she climbs down one of the many huge rock mountains at the Joshua Tree National Monument in the California desert.
Joshua Tree National Monument with the grippy rock and surrel landscape appeals to climbers of all abilities. The rock itself is quartz monzonite and tends to be fairly solid, but the less traveled and/or newer routes can have the dreaded `ball bearings underfoot syndrome` making those friction moves a tad more dicey. The best rock sports a coating of `desert varnish` or patina which darkens and solidifies the rock appreciably.
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