Table Mountain 

WATCH OUT FOR POISON OAK. it basically carpets the approach to the climbing at table mountain! oh and a lot of the rock is loose enough that you might want to have your belayer stand out of harm's way. otherwise it's a very cool place; i'd give it $1, figuratively speaking...

As of 9/30/02, the poison oak has been cleared out on the approach to the Grotto, though wandering off the trail is still a good way to find yourself itching for a few days.

Poison Oak is in season again, and I'm itching like hell. We tried to clear out the pathinto the back areas, and now are covered in the shit ourselves. Yuck. It also should benoted that access into the Grotto, Mid wall, Welcome Wall etc requires an additional hike,as there is a new white gate locking the continued road for a time that is not specifiedon the information sheet. The second gate (when we were there) appeared to have been runover, and is still there, but not even close to functional locked in a bowled over openposition. Not good!.

Labor Day weekend: Access onto the dirt road (first gate) was closed off to vehicles. The swinging gate had a lock on it and the metal handle was removed. There was no sign posted indicating closure so we just parked outside the gate and hiked in to the Grotto. The 30 minute walk makes a good warm up. :)

NOTE: According to some locals, the gate, as of the Monday of Labor Day weekend is OPEN. Joel is correct that the 30 minute walk into the regular parking areas is about 30 minutes.

I checked with locals. One person reported to the authors that they were there on Labor Day (monday) 2003 and the first gate was not locked on that day, though of course as previously reported the second gate is locked due to some Burea of Reclamation and County issues.

Please note that the general information about Table Mountain has changed. Camping is NO LONGER allowed in the Table Mountain area. There's a nice pretty sign telling you that the area is now day use only.

When going to table mountain most climbs are not in the book being that new routes are being established monthly. The gold wall is not even in the book, and it offers some of the best climbing. A great, great climbing adventure area.

The Gold Wall is not listed, since it is on private property. Until someone tells me that is "ok" to climb there, I'm not going to add it, which sucks because I'd like to. There are climbs there, a lot of them, and some of the ones I've been on are FUN.

I moved your comment o Anonymous Coward from 5N06, I'm not sure why it was there?

they "as in geologists" of the area are sure that the rock is Latite, not Basalt.

Gold Wall is still on private property. But that is not keeping the crowds away. Last weekend, about 40 people were there! If you're planning on going during the weekend, I strongly recommend a helmet and a lot of patience.

Brian,
I am not trying to be a censor, but given the delicacy of the property situation, I think it would be best if we didn't add or post about the GW.
Thanks.

Climbed and camped here a few weekends ago. Is it true from the comments above that this area is day use? If so we got lucky camping out on a Saturday night. We didn't leave the Grotto until nightfall and set up camp down by the reservoir. We saw a Sheriff in the morning and he appeared to be giving us the stink eye from afar, but didn't ticket us or the car the night before.

Updates and info at www.sonorapassclimbing.com/Content%20Pages/Updates_Page.htm#>>>

The main parking area is here:

37.932142, -120.462365