Purple Mine Rock Climbing

Purple Mine is a small climbing area but has some of the best quality andesite in the River Mountains, the result of volcanoes from 12-15 million years ago. In 1982, shortly after getting into climbing, Boulder City locals Mark Quinn, Tony Yinger, and Tom Ray began exploring here to ply their new trade. As this is the closest good rock to BC they ended up climbing here extensively over the next few years- bouldering, top roping, and leading everything they could get their hands on (which was sometimes up to 5.11 even!). They also brought many new people out to this crag for their first experience on rock. The crag is named after the small exploratory diggins in the purple dirt on the west side of the canyon, just above the detention basin. The tunnel is about 100’ long and has a bunch of soft fluorite or gypsum veins. Above the crag are shallow limestone outcrops, the remains of former seas that were here before volcanoes and tectonics pushed them out.

A note about climbing at Purple Mine: The crag and approaches are on city land and open to the public. The man-made drainage ditches are not. As long as folk stay out of these there shouldn’t be any issue climbing here. However, local residents sometimes feel proprietary about this hillside and have given flak or just called the cops for people being back here. I recommend keeping a low profile, being polite and discrete on the way into or out of the crag.