From the eastern limit of our Joshua Tree excursions at Cholla Garden, we headed back west to the main park road and followed that a short distance further west to the Split Rock picnic area, located about half a mile north of the pavement at the end of a good dirt road.  A 2-mile loop trail begins here, the northern arm of which leads into a shallow drainage before turning about to the southwest, passing through several rock gardens and washes before returning to the picnic area from the west – multiple climbing routes are accessible from the trail, so we expected to see some climbers on this Saturday morning.  We followed the loop counter-clockwise as described, immediately finding a solo climber some distance to the southeast midway up a sheer face called Future Games Rock, and we quickly reached the northern turn and began gaining elevation as we traversed southwestward up the slope.  Still breezy today, the cool wind was a nice complement to the bright sunshine, and we passed quite a few wildflowers we hadn’t yet seen.  About 1-1/2 miles into the loop, we came upon a spur trail to Face Rock – turning west, we followed it for a little over a quarter mile to its namesake formation and turned around there (this spur trail continues on to connect with the Skull Rock loop we had walked the previous evening – a nice 5+-mile combination could easily be made from Jumbo Rocks campground or the Split Rock picnic area that takes in both loops and the connector trail).  Regaining the Split Rock trail, we turned eastward and followed it through several more rock gardens back to the trailhead, passing more climbers on a tall face to the west.  Cynthia completed Miles 6 and 7 on this easy loop that really is a must do if one is in the area – no steep pitches at all, and beautiful scenery all the way through.  Resuming our westward trek through the park, we drove down to Keys View to take in the panoramic vistas over the Coachella Valley before continuing on to points elsewhere.