Red Rocks is a justifiably world-renowned destination climbing area, and contrary to the quirky 1980s cider ad by Leslie Nielsen, it IS red and there ARE rocks in it!

The majority of the climbing (though not all – see later…) is accessed via the 13 miles, one-way scenic loop road. This brings with it a number of annoyances:

• You have to reserve an entry slot to even get onto the loop, for $2 (or turn up on spec, but you still have to pay the fee). For most of our visit we just took our chances, and there was plenty of availability, but for a few days either side of Thanksgiving we reserved a few days in advance, and only just bagged a spot, and on TG itself, the loop was completely booked.
• The loop doesn’t open until 8am and closes at 5pm so you’re a bit pressed if you are going for a long route (hours vary according to the month, and you can get a late exit permit)
• Actually accessing the loop costs another $20 per day – top tip, buy an America the Beautiful Annual Pass for $80 and get in here and all National Parks for free. Possibly the best value anything on the planet!
• Doing the loop is amongst the top tourist things to do in a day trip from Vegas and as parking is limited and strictly policed, you can find places at a premium at the various pullouts.
• … and finally note the words one-way. If you climb at the start of the loop you’ve got a half hour journey at the end of the day, or alternatively a 30mins trip to get to the far end before you even begin your mission.
• All of this seems like complete overkill in the tranquility outside of the holiday season, but I acknowledge it would be carnage if these measures weren’t in place at peak times!

Here’s a roundup of some of the dozens of sectors and thousands of routes:

The majority of the single pitch, mostly sport climbing, is concentrated in the Calico Hills area and accessed from the first three pullouts / parking areas near the start of the loop. From the road these look disarmingly nearby, but the complex warren of gullies and buttresses, mixed in with the multiple levels and layers, and a few sandy scrambles, can make for a bewildering approach. The “follow the yellow line” feature on the maps in Mountain Project is absolutely invaluable!

Magic Bus is accessed from the Second Pullout.

It looks quite insignificant from a distance, like most of these craglets, but the routes are about 60ft…

Neon Sunset, 5.8 and Queasy Sunrise, 5.9, were a good intro to the mix of patina edges and occasional sandy gap:

Sandstone Quarry, the third pullout, has loads more “easily accessed” sectors, though it took us a while to track down Running Man Wall. This had the appeal of a couple of warmups, and potentially the namesake 4* 11c. However, the harrowing experience on Eat my Shorts, 5.7+ and Frictionary Face, 5.9 (both utter sandbags!) and the fact I hadn’t realised that a few cams were recommended, had me resetting objectives.

Happily, we passed The Pier on the way back, and I jumped on Under the Boardwalk, to nab a different 4* 11 as a consolation. Improbably steep!

Stunning sea of huecos, some huge, some not so…

For Thanksgiving itself, Red Rocks was totally rammed – no surprise in hindsight as it’s the perfect spot for a late November long weekend and within a few hours drive of probably 20 million people. The loop road was completely booked a few days in advance, but happily there are two sides to Calico Hills, the eastern one being accessed from outside the loop via Calico Basin. Rainbow views from a previous day:

Cannibal Crag was awash with climbers on every facet, and we grabbed a quick YECTOYD on Cow Lick Crag, but couldn’t stomach the prospect of standing “in line” for another.

Sunshine was at a premium (low teens – scorchio in the sun but pretty chilly in the shade) and we made our way up over Guardian Angel Pass which links the two sides of the hills and gives access to a couple of high, south-facing walls, including Cut Your Teeth Wall.

Nice chat with a couple of other teams, including Em and Phoebe, and enough routes to go around. We pretty much ticked the crag. Helen on the appropriately named November Daze, 5.7

Here’s Phoebe catching the last of the rays towards the end of the day on September Knights, 5.8.

… and Em on the awesome featured route up the Unknown Aréte just to the right – only bolted in the last few weeks and already a 4* classic (10c/d-ish)

Fab views to either side of the Pass

Back in the Loop the next day, and we managed to find a parking spot at the First Pullout and had a fun day at the Carly Quinn Crag. As a bonus we bumped into the Quinns, the couple who’d developed it (on one of their regular winter snowbird visits from Colorado). We pretty much ticked the crag, including Helen leading the pumpy layback crack of Keeping up with Carly, 10a and Miss Carly Quinn, 5.8

Just to the west, at a similar level, Tortuga Tower only has four routes, but two of them are absolute belters. Turtle Track, 10d and the eponymous 11a are outstanding (both tough), whereas the adjacent Holy Chelonian is a soft touch 11a.

No pics but here’s the view through the access tunnel.

More handy options: Civilisation Crag was absolutely heaving, but we managed to squeeze in Conquistador, 10d and Byzantium, 10b

Also busy at the adjacent Cactus Massacre.

I was truly Massacred on Cactus Root, 11c, but made better work of Xmas Cactus, 11a.

Of course there’s much more to Red Rocks than single pitch cragging, and we’d hoped to be able to spend more time on the longer adventures. These are situated further around the loop, and mostly involve fairly long (an hour or two) approaches into one of huge canyons which slice through the main Red Rocks chain. Most of the major crags face north or east, and with the narrow canyons see little sun (especially in early December). Stir in the patchy weather (don’t be fooled by all the blue skies above!) permit issues and Helen picking up a tooth infection, and circumstances conspired to only give us one shot at a multi-pitch adventure on our penultimate day.

To maximise our chances, I’d made a rest-day recce of the approach to Solar Slab from the Oak Creek Canyon parking.

Sure enough, I found an unwanted diversion into the boulder-choked creek bed (following the yellow line on Mountain Project and not my nose – MP isn’t always right!) I ironed out that wrinkle, proving (again!) our favourite Rockaroundtheworld moto: “Time in reconnaissance is rarely wasted” (hint – stay right at the obvious junction which makes a beeline for the crag). The sight of a large yellow rucksack moving confidently ahead was a helpful navigational beacon:

… and I jogged along so as not to lose the path, only to discover that the rucksack’s owner was none other than Alex Honnold. “You’re moving fast” he greeted me, and I explained my rest day recce, so he kindly pointed out the trail to the foot of the wall. He was on a mission to “hang some gear on something hard”, but took time out to politely listen to my CAC Ambassador pitch. He’d been aware of Climbers Against Cancer and had even met founder John Ellison – being honest that he only has limited time for numerous requests for good causes, he also acknowledged that “… but I definitely am AGAINST Cancer” and suggested I follow up with “his people”. Fingers crossed!

Back to the recce, and I scoped out the line of Johnny Vegas, the classic 5.7 on the lower tier and our primary objective. This comes in from the right of the shot below, takes the narrow corner next to distinctive red-brown square wall in the centre of the shot, and scuttles off rightwards around the looming overlap above. Job done.

However, my eye was drawn by a team of two women on the route to the left, which tackles the “featureless” wall and then takes on the overlap. You can just about make out a belayer at the foot of the wall pitch, and here’s a sideways view from closer up of the leader.

A bit of Mountain Project research suggested that Walking on Sunshine, 10b/c, might prove a fitting finale for our trip.

Gorgeous day when the stars finally aligned for our visit, though around ten days had passed since my recce and the narrow sun window on the lower tier had shrunk significantly in the intervening period.

Pitch one is shared with Beulah’s Book, outflanking a hideous looking offwidth chimney via elegant patina-featured cracks and a steep wall. It was only a week later, in the Lantern Pike in Little Hayfield, that Jim reminded me we’d done that route about 15 years previously. Here’s Jim in the continuation chimney:

Walking on Sunshine breaks out rightwards to avoid that unpleasantness (phew!) and take on the very compact, steep wall. A couple of wires supplement the sportingly placed bolts (4 in 70ft) and the “smooth” wall is plastered with tiny but positive micro-edges. Outstanding! Having climbed this in the shadow of the mountain opposite, we briefly overtook the rising umbra and were finally “walking on sunshine” ourselves.

The next pitch takes a less steep wall fairly easily until tricky moves to reach the overlap at a weakness where it is split by a crack. A stiff pull here and the route is in the bag.

Three raps and we were back on the ground (the final rap is getting on for 40m – you MIGHT make it on a single 70 or be prepared for some slightly sketchy down-climbing if using a 60 as we did. TIE A KNOT and stay safe!) Fab route!

Our final day saw a frenzied “squeeze every last drop” visit to Classic Rock sector, a newly developed crag with a couple of dozen routes, some of which are stupendous, only 5mins from the parking – how did that go unclimbed for so long? Despite the post TG crowds, and a plague of top-ropers doing laps (a peculiarly American trait) we managed to almost tick the crag.

Dirty Clings, 10a, makes the most of some giant sandy huecos (thank you to Jens, a passing photographer, for this snap).

Another Bolt in the Wall, 11b, and I Would Climb ANY-CLING for Love, 11a, were both excellent, and the future area classic of Climbers Paradise, 10a was probably the pick of the bunch. Here’s Helen on the hidden gem of Pretty High for a Climbing Guy, a 100ft 5.8+ up the back of the formation.

With a dozen or so routes between us in the bag, we could contemplate the packing, RV return and the long flight home with “The Rat” well and truly fed, for a while at least. Looking back over a couple of months of our in-and-out-of-Vegas loop, as we sipped a final pint of West Coast Hazy IPA at the airport, we concluded there’s plenty more to come back for. A different sequence would open up a huge array of areas which were either too hot, smoke-filled or frozen at the time we happened to be passing. A 4×4 would enable access to some hinterland locations without recourse to Winnebago rallying. Watch this space for a follow up trip in a year or two. I hope you’ve enjoyed following this one 😎. Cheers, Dom

Logistics: A few notes on camping to supplement the Loop logistics mentioned at the top of this post.

The most handy spot is the Red Rocks Campground, run by the NPS, it’s one of those great global meeting spots where climbing lay-lines cross and climbers from all over the States and the rest of the world converge. It’s a world away from Simon’s Field in Bosherston, but somehow connected. You can book in advance through the excellent Recreation.gov app, and this is highly recommended. It was totally booked out for weekends and the time around Thanksgiving by the time we were confident enough of our plans to investigate, and as a consequence we only managed to grab the last scraps of availability with days scattered here and there, separated by gaps where we were homeless. Top tip would be to reserve well in advance and cancel what you don’t need (there’s a pretty generous refund regime – do make sure to do this so you aren’t depriving someone else!)

The campground is just a stone’s throw from the canyon, tucked in a natural dip in the hills and so screened from Vegas. The entrance road provides a great panorama of the main climbing areas, right to left: Calico Basin and Calico Hills…

… and further left Willow Springs, Pine Creek Canyon, Juniper Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, Mt Wilson and Black Velvet Canyon to name a few:

Beyond RRCG, camping options are really limited. There are some commercial RV parks but they’re expensive and definitely not a wilderness experience. We came up with two options we ended up deploying for our “homeless days”.

1) the dispersed camping (free, legit camping with no facilities) in Lovell Canyon, about 30mins to the west. Glorious vistas, out in the boondocks, and actually quite handy for Blue Diamond and Black Velvet Canyon (not accessed from the dreaded loop road).

2) the Campgrounds in the Lake Meade National Conservation Area. This is a huge tract of land under NPS management which surrounds Lake Meade (the body of water contained by the Hoover Dam). Ambitions for this Park were seemingly out of step with reality, not helped by reducing water levels meaning some of the potential watersports and beach clientele are now stranded hundreds of metres away from where the actual water is. This means there seems to be generally good availability, and it’s quite an impressive setting if you like deserts (which we do). The downside is that it’s the wrong side of Vegas, almost an hour from Red Rocks, though more handy for the La Madre Mountains.

Hopefully you are inspired to visit – be sure to plan ahead!