The boulders are sandstone. Meaning they are easy to climb with no ropes. You get really good traction. Can you see the dog on the lower left hand bottom of this shot?
About that bad decision. Either go back, over all those boulders which took two hours to climb up. Or try to get to the trail which is only a half a mile back to the car, and takes ten minutes. All we have to do is make it to the top. If we stay in the crevices we should be able to do this.