Mountain Project: Climbing SF Bay Area

Submitted By: Aron Quiter on Jun 19, 2002
Administrator: Aron Quiter
Latitude: 37.2366 Longitude: -122.1050
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Description

Castle Rock State Park is one of the larger climbing regions in the area, hosting a variety of sport, trad, boulding and top rope problems.

The rock is mostly sandstone, making it fairly easy on the hands and dynos quite slap happy.

Access into the main park will cost you a couple of dollars, but that shouldn't deter you. If money is a concern, you can also park outside the main area and walk into the park.

The bouldering at Castle Rock is some of the best in the state, if not the whole western U.S.

Getting There

From the North: Drive to the town of Saratoga, which is located a little southwest of San Jose. Find Saratoga by heading south on the 101 a little past the Dumbarton Bridge. Take the 85 south exit, which is also the Cupertino / Santa Cruz exit. Take 85 south for about 10 miles, and exit on Saratoga Ave. Go right onto Saratoga, and follow this road through town. Saratoga Ave becomes Hwy 9, or Big Basin Way. Go up the mountain, and hang a left on Skyline Boulevard (35), which will be the 1st major intersection out of town. The main park is about 2.5 miles up on the right side, and is prominently marked.

Featured Route For Castle Rock State Park

If you go straight up, it's 5.12a; if you access the center from the knobs on the left, there's only an 11d mantle to solve.

Center Route - Chew Tooth 5.12a CA : SF Bay Area : ... : Chew Tooth

Climb the center smooth section of the rock, which goes upto a large round jug. If you "cheat" in from the left usingan excellent balancy move, and then pull the balancy mantle,the route is 5.11d and gets two stars. If you dyno up tothe large jug, and then pull the mantle, the route is anexcellent 5.12a. Continue up to the top of the rock, whereone more slightly tough move awaits....[more]

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By Brian Quiter
Oct 3, 2008
CONDITION REPORT

Its going to rain this weekend, and this prompts my annual warning about climbing in Castle Rock when it is wet:

After significant rainfalls sandstone becomes very fragile. Do not climb at Castle Rock during these times because doing so will break holds! Also, you want very dry conditions to do any serious sending here, and you have to just wait until water seeps out of the sandstone. So please don't climb at Castle Rock this weekend, or for about a week after any good rainstorm.

Thanks!

By Blitzo
Sep 12, 2006

The rock here, although short, is pretty cool. The forest is beautiful! The bugs get annoying and the yellowjackets are vicious!

By Tevis Blom
From: Boulder
Dec 24, 2007

After learning to climb around here, I moved to Colorado... I would definitely recommend leaving the Bay Area if you want to be a climber.

By Aron Quiter
Administrator
From: Berkeley, CA
Jan 5, 2008

Yosemite?

By K Ice
From: Saint Paul, MN
Apr 17, 2008

This area has really cool rock formations. The park service has put together a very nice pamphlet on how it's formed that you can buy for just $2. Check it out!

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