So what's a woman who's afraid of falling doing climbing up to Balanced Rock???

Good question!

First, let me say that this blog was going to be all about our off-grid house stuff and off-grid living . . . but, since we're not in the house yet and normalcy is on hold temporarily, I'm going to talk about mundane day-to-day things that we are doing here in Terlingua. 

Back to climbing.  I'm not big on falling.  Historically, I tend to freeze when hanging off the side of mountains. Usually, I start crying and become paralyzed with fear. The first time I remember doing that was when Rem and I went backpacking above Anna Ruby Falls in Georgia shortly after we met. Wearing a 50 lb pack and blindly following Rem up the trail, I remember at some point, hearing him tell me not to look down . . .right.  Of course, I immediately looked down and freaked out. There was nothing there . . . nothing . . . empty space. I started to grab the rock for dear life, yelling "Where the hell are you taking me????? Are you out of your mind?" We had had a late start in the day, the sun was going down and we ended up sleeping on a ledge on an extremely steep mountainside. Needless to say, climbing is not on the list. No raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens here. Over the years, I had other climbing adventures that ended up in very similar ways - tears and fears. Not good.

This morning, since jewelry tools and supplies are packed up in the storage container and oil paints and canvas are stored too, I decided to explore the national park. Got on-line, pulled up a map. did some searches.  Read some rave reviews about Balanced Rock - nice pictures, too. Cool. Off Grapevine Hills trail. Even cooler.  Nice easy walk - couple of miles. Excellent. 

Drove up to the park, talked to a very nice ranger at the entrance gate.  Asked her about how to find Balanced Rock. She gave me directions and told me to ignore what some people said about the climb, it's not bad, just the last little bit . . . OK.  I'm there. On my way to Grapevine Hills. Nice drive.

Turned onto Grapevine Hills Road and about 7 or so miles in found the trailhead. Just like everyone said, nice easy soft sand walk.

Beautiful place. Huge boulders, way high up . . . not a grape vine in sight . . . not one. Some very cool vegetation that I couldn't identify because all the books are packed up in the storage container . . . sigh.

Really don't want to buy duplicate books for temporary situations. Finally, reached this trail sign. 1/4 mile. Hmmmm, more than a last little bit . . .

Off I go. Up the trail. It started getting steeper and steeper but not too bad. I had a walking stick for balance.  I guess it is needed for balanced rock. Trail started getting obscure . . . steep and obscure. All of a sudden, I was going downhill in very perilous territory. Very loose rock, many cacti, what the heck? I'm off the trail and feeling the onset of paralysis. OK, I started looking very hard for signs of footfalls and trails. Sat down on my butt. I've found that's the best way to go down if there are no good places for feet. Yikes. Cactus. Started talking to myself. OK, this is really not so bad. You are alone and you will have to deal with this. You are off the trail and going downhill - you should be going uphill. I sat there, staring at the rocks looking for the trail and where I went wrong. No tears, no paralysis yet, just a few heart palpitations. And, the mountain below me was very steep. What the heck is that about? Am I being brave? I sat there inching along avoiding cactus for about 10 minutes . . . couldn't locate the trail. Voices . . . I'm hearing voices . . . not from heaven . . . trail angels! People! Somewhere above me. I started calling - Helloooooo, helloooo, are you guys on the trail? Ha, that sounded silly. They heard me and they saw me and told me that they were indeed on the trail. I could see them, too, which gave me hope and a direction to follow.  They waited till I reached them on the trail and they showed me the right way. Even steeper, foot and handholds, small spaces for shoes. Could I do this? See those rocks way high up in this next picture . . . that's where I was heading.

The path in some places became solid rock, narrow with some indentations, not too bad, I tell myself and I'm still on the trail. I'm not even getting winded. Just forging on.  Each new turn in the trail made me speculate - can I really do this, do I really want to?  Guess I did! Because, finally, there it was, Balanced Rock.  I made it with no tears and no paralysis. Wow, I impressed myself! And, what an impressive sight. Well worth the hike.

I didn't climb up through the arch to view the rock from the other side. Decided to leave that for the next visit. Usually going back down is worse than going up. Not so today. With my new found courage, going down was a piece of cake. Wow. Breakthrough! Runic Dagaz! Yea!

Lovely walk back to the Jeep. Mellow drive back to Terlingua.