Best columnar basalt (and other columnar volcanic rock) crags?

Since cutting my teeth on the Pacific Northwest basalt and more recently getting to sample some of the awesome (dare I say better?) Arizona stuff, I have to say these days columnar basalt trad cragging is my most preferred climbing style.

I thought it would be fun to hear from folks about where the best columnar basalt (and similar columnar volcanic rock) places are, hopefully get some recommendations for international stuff, and make a comprehensive (or as close as possible) list of the world’s columnar basalt crags. Doesn't have to be as pure columns as Devil's Tower or Trout Creek, but I think places like Jailhouse and Massacre rocks, while maybe sweet climbing, aren't really what I'm trying to make a list about. However places that are decidedly columnar but primarily bolt protected like Upper Gorge at Smith should make the list I think.

The great:
The Waterfall, AZ
Trout Creek, OR
Devil’s Tower, WY (not basalt but definitely a columnar volcanic cousin to basalt and definitely amazing)
Paradise Forks, AZ
Volunteer Canyon, AZ
Lower Gorge Smith Rock, OR
Upper Gorge Smith Rock, OR
The Underworld, UT
Tangan, Ecuador
Los Condores, Chile
Cerro Colorado, Chile
Ben Lomond, Tasmania (not basalt but surely columnar and looks sick)

The ok/good:
Vantage, WA
Tieton River area, WA
Beacon Rock, WA
Aberdeen Columns, BC
Connor Columns, ID
Black Cliffs, ID
Pigeon Cliff, CA
The Grotto, CA
Pine Valley, UT
Oak Creek Canyon Overlook, AZ
Ettringen Lay, Germany
El Gunko, Panama (wild looking!!)
Hell's Gate, Kenya

The ugly:
North Table Mountain, CO
Twin Crags near Truckee, CA
Skinner Butte aka The Columns, OR
High Valley, OR

Someone please spray us down on specific crags in the following locations and roughly how they rank in the world pantheon of basalt:
New Mexico!?
Random southern Utah crags?
Various Iceland crags?
Ireland?
Mexico spots, Aculco, Los Dinamos etc?
Chile locations?
Tasmania?
Armenia? (closed?)

What else is missing? Tell me where things go and I’ll edit the master list.

Also, we should probably settle once-and-for-all whether Trout or the Waterfall is the best basalt trad crag in the US!

waterfall is hands down better than trout..

NORTH TABLE MOUNTAIN IS BEST "BASALT" IN THE WORLD.

Generally referred to as basaltic, they are classified either as monzonite (the lowest flow) and latite (the upper two flows), or as shoshonite.

Aberdeen Columns in BC is relatively local to you.  Can't attest to its status as a world class destination.

I'm not a geologist but I think these are basalt:

The lower area at Smith Rocks, very good

A place called Twin Crags located between Truckee and North Lake Tahoe, mediocre (slippery)

Bear Crag in Mammoth Lakes.  Mostly hard sport climbing.  Would be great except the access is seasonal, and during the season the road is open to get down there (summer), it's mostly too hot because it's south facing.

A place called the Grotto out of Jamestown CA.  I have a lot of affection for that little poison oak infested place, as it was a favorite day trip when I lived near San Francisco.

edited, oops, you already listed lower Smith...

I wouldn't call it "best", but local columnar basalt near me here at Black Cliffs in Boise, ID is accessible and varied. Mountain project only covers the most popular climbs and has 264 climbs listed at the moment. The Sandy Epeldi book covers most of the rest.

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/106060666/black-cliffs

phylp phylp wrote:

I'm not a geologist but I think these are basalt:

The lower area at Smith Rocks, very good

A place called Twin Crags located between Truckee and North Lake Tahoe, mediocre (slippery)

Bear Crag in Mammoth Lakes.  Mostly hard sport climbing.  Would be great except the access is seasonal, and during the season the road is open to get down there (summer), it's mostly too hot because it's south facing.

A place called the Grotto out of Jamestown CA.  I have a lot of affection for that little poison oak infested place, as it was a favorite day trip when I lived near San Francisco.

edited, oops, you already listed lower Smith...

Thanks, I added Twin Crags and The Grotto. But can Bear Crag really be classified as columnar climbing, or just a cliff with some faint eroded columns. Honest question because I haven't made it there.

Edit: CD Transporter I added Black Cliffs too, thanks!

What about the rest of Idaho?

N Table Mountain is ugly in the summer...but in January and February is it still ugly. Really a case of love the one you’re with. 

The Underworld in Saint George is pretty rad not sure about world class as I haven't climbed much world class Columns, but better than the stuff I've been on in Idaho.   Off topic but I will say I'm a pretty big fan of the overhanging choss basalt of east Idaho. 

Skinner Butte aka The Columns, Eugene OR mountainproject.com/area/10…

High Valley, OR mountainproject.com/area/10…

gonna need a tier lower than ugly for skinner butte IMO

Ben F wrote:

Thanks, I added Twin Crags and The Grotto. But can Bear Crag really be classified as columnar climbing, or just a cliff with some faint eroded columns. Honest question because I haven't made it there.

In my recollection the columns are much more distinct than in the photos on MP, so I looked in my Mammoth guidebook. Marty Lewis describes then as "volcanic tuff similar to basalt".  I just assumed they were basalt because they are a stone's throw away from the Devil's Postpile, which is described as "the best example of columnar basalt in the world".  But Marty is careful about his geology so it probably doesn't go on your list.

https://www.nps.gov/depo/index.htm

Just searched on MP for The Grotto and the wrong CA cliff comes up.  The listing that will bring it up is a search for Table Mountain, and The Grotto is a subcliff of that.

El Gunko near Boquete in Panama would seem to fit your criteria.

Tieton River in Washington, although I hear a lot of the rock there is andesite, not basalt. Still look and climbs just about the same. Royal Columns crag is a great example. I'd rate it a solid "good".

Hell's Gate in Kenya if you like adventurous multipitch crack climbing above giraffes and hyenas.

Ben F wrote:

What about the rest of Idaho?

Dierkes Lake (and the other crags) in Twin Falls, ID: well developed areas, basalt rock with much of it in columns and much of it not. There is good bouldering too, if you like that kind of thing.

Connor Columns near City of Rocks: I've never climbed here, but the photos I've seen of it look good and it sounds like the kind of thing you are looking for. I can definitely recommend the City of Rocks granite nearby though.

Massacre Rocks and Teddy Bear Cove further east: I've also never climbed here, but I'm told that the climbing is excellent. Maintaining access has been an issue, so climb it while you can??

Large sections of the state are covered in flood basalt, so I'm sure that there are other gems hidden away if you are willing to have some adventures.

Another book that I can recommend for Idaho is "Idaho Underground" by Dave Bingham. It is not as comprehensive for the Black Cliffs as the Epeldi book, but covers a bunch of other areas and is good quality with glossy photos, etc.

Don't talk shit on north table mountain. The quarry wall is legit 

Beacon Rock, WA

CD Transporter wrote:

Someone mentioned andesite and for this conversation it might be important to know that basalt and andesite are both lava flows that have cooled and that they are just on different points of the spectrum of possible mica content in the rock/lava. Andesite has more mica than basalt and if you get enough mica it becomes rhyolite. These categories are pretty arbitrary. I think columnar basalt and andesite are pretty similar, andesite tends to have more horizontal features (ie Tieton) in my experience but my sample size and expertise is limited. I know the OP said columnar trad but I think we need to consider some other versions that have much of the same movement that makes basalt column trad climbing fun... 

Los Condores in Chile is not really columnar but still basalt. Also, the upper gorge at Smith is not the standard columnar crack climbing (its mostly impossible to protect seams) but it has really good bolted stemming and column hugging climbs. Literally stacked end to end with dozens of 4 star 5.12s.