ROCKIN' GOOD TIME ROCK CLIMBING OFFERS REAL FAMILY FUN IN JOSHUA TREE.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK - The climber, 40 feet above the desert floor, stands on a thin ledge and reaches for a handhold. He is 11 years old.

Marcos Giron, of Thousand Oaks, is climbing while his father, Andres, tends the safety rope that will keep his son from falling if he slips.

Once thought of as a daredevil sport, rock climbing is becoming a family activity. Joshua Tree National Park - with its proximity to Los Angeles, long climbing season, guide services, great camping and thousands of climbing routes - is a mecca for new and experienced rock climbers.

Although risk can be managed in climbing, the penalty for mistakes is high, so most new climbers take classes or hire a guide service. The Girons are climbing with Pat Dennis, a guide with Vertical Adventures, which offers climbing classes, clinics and private guiding. Father, son and 14-year-old daughter Gabriela are all climbing at a formation called ``Cap Rock.''

Bob Gaines, director of Vertical Adventures, says, ``Climbing is a great tool to build self confidence in kids by getting them in a situation where you can give them a doable challenge.''

And often the kids do as well as the parents.

``Kids are natural climbers, lean, flexible and have a great strength-to- weight ratio,'' Vertical Adventures guide Erik Kramer-Webb said. ``In Europe you see grandparents taking their grandkids climbing. We're not quite there yet.''

There's intergenerational respect in climbing, according to Kramer-Webb. Even 18-year-old ``rope guns,'' as skilled climbers are called, have respect for the achievements of the older generation who pioneered rock climbing in California in the 1960s.

In addition to setting up safety ropes, the guide companies supply the individual gear needed to get started: a climbing harness, helmet and rock shoes. Refinements in rubber formulas and shoe design mean that climbers can enjoy gecko-like adhesion to the coarse, grippy granitic rock at Joshua Tree.

The rock, known as monzogranite, dots the Joshua Tree landscape with Stonehenge-like formations. Rock walls, towers and boulders invite exploration. Born 80 million years ago, nearly 25 miles under the earth's surface, Joshua Tree's brown rock formed underground in rectangular blocks as the molten rock cooled slowly. Groundwater mixed with minerals eroded the rock into rounded shapes, like an ice cube held under a faucet. Flash floods then exposed the rock formations.

The downside to Joshua Tree's coarse rock is that it can extract some flesh from climbers who sometimes leave behind skin from fingers, knees and other parts of the anatomy. Knowledgeable climbers wrap their hands with tape before climbing more difficult routes.

Dennis is in his 18th year of teaching rock climbing. He has developed a Zen-like calm about a potentially life-ending sport. And it rubs off on his students. When Marcos Giron stops on his climb and thinks he can't make it to the top, Dennis shouts some advice.

``Just set a goal of getting to that next ledge,'' he says. ``Then you can reassess and come down if you want.''

Marcos makes it to the next ledge. And the next. Eventually he makes it to the top, and a grin splits his face as his father lowers him to the ground. Now it's Gabriela's turn.

Taking a whole family climbing can be expensive, Gaines says. ``We give family discounts. We enjoy taking kids out. It's fun for us and fun for them, too.''

But you don't need a rope and a love of high places to enjoy Joshua Tree.

You can hike miles of trails or just follow a dry wash across the desert and see a riot of flowers in spring. A roadrunner might speed by, or even a coyote. Jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, owls, bobcats and golden eagles can be found here. Also tarantulas, which are not poisonous, but their bite can be painful. Scorpions, sidewinders and other rattlesnakes also live here, so be careful where you put your hands.

Joshua Tree includes two desert ecosystems, the Colorado and Mojave. The lower, dryer Colorado sections of desert are natural gardens of creosote bush, ocotillo and cholla cactus.

The higher, cooler and wetter Mojave Desert above 3,000 feet includes five fan palm oases, growing in those few areas where water occurs naturally and wildlife abounds.

And of course there are the Joshua ``trees'' (actually a member of the yucca family) to marvel at, even with your feet planted firmly on the ground.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Fourteen-year-old Gabriela Giron of Thousand Oaks works her way to the top of Cap Rock in the Joshua Tree National Park during a family rock climbing trip.

(2) Marcos Giron, 11, climbs Cap Rock in the Joshua Tree National Park as his father, Andres, belays at the bottom.

(3) Climbing rope is looped through a belay device, seen here on guide Pat Dennis. The device helps rock climbers ascend and also can prevent them from falling.

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News

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