Beautiful high mountain setting in pristine canyon with bullet-hard rock. Moderate trad on the banks of a mountain stream (Water Wall), and a few fun bolted sport routes on the steep black and orange cliff band above (Fire Wall).
Getting There
Hwy 518 about 18 miles east of Taos. Look for FS Rd 22 just past Comales Campground at a turnout on the right. If you get to Sipapu, you missed it...
Great swimming a mile East on NM 518 at a pull out on the north of the road below a series of small waterfalls.
Food, gas, lodging and a nice disc golf course in Sipapu Ski Area a few miles further east on NM518. One of the most family friendly climbing areas in Taos county.
Guide book for the area is Jay Foley's "Taos Rock"
By George Perkins Administrator From: Los Alamos, NM Aug 23, 2009
The rock at Comales looks like sandstone at first glance, but it's metamorphic- a light-colored schist or maybe quartzite- (with micas, mostly muscovite but some biotite, forming the layering). There aren't usually micas in unmetamorphosed sandstone, and the quartz and feldspar are recrystallized, which is why it's "bullet". If it was a sandstone before it was metamorphosed, then it's quartzite; but without seeing any original depositional features preserved, it's hard to tell from a schist that originally was rhyolite or another silica-rich volcanic rock.
This is a nice setting and it's a great area for beginners.
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