My friends, Mr. and Mrs. Javelina of Queen Creek, ...
Description
Queen Creek and its many volcanic towers is the home of central Arizona sport climbing and bouldering. The rock is volcanic tuff and the routes go from deep-pocket pulling down to tiny-edge crimping, depending on the area. Many of the routes here were established between the early '90s and present day.
Getting There
Queen Creek Canyon is found above the small town of Superior, AZ, about an hour's drive (depending where you start) east of the metro Phoenix area. Drive through Superior headed east, go up the hill and the various areas will be found after you get through the big tunnel.
This is another of Arizona's great climbing areas. It was once home to the Phoenix Bouldering Competition, attended by thousands of climbers. However, in a questionable land swap, it was taken over by Resolution Copper. As soon as possible Resolution will turn this ecologically protected area into a hole in the ground about a mile across and perhaps a half a mile deep.
I am deeply sorry for my over estimation of the hole in the ground. Perhaps it will be as attractive as the ASARCO photo above, a sort of eco-friendly hole.
Climbers need to get their asses out here and make a presence of themselves: 1) Enjoy it while we have it. 2) Remind the shafts and tools that the area still means a lot to a lot of folks. As the land swap creeps forward QC draws fewer and fewer preemptively dismayed climbers. Poor form.
I'm not sure of the other areas, but Lower Devil's has seen quite a bit of activity lately. I've been in LD most weekends since December. Other parties have been there nearly every time.
There are also some new climbs going up both in LD and Hackberry - I've been in on a few of the FAs and they are great! Keep an eye out on MP for new route info, and if you haven't climbed the older routes, check them out!
I lived in Tucson for 3 years and Queen Creek was my absolute favorite place to go climbing at. It would be a tragedy if QC was closed down. Which also brings me to my next point. How come no bouldering is documented for QC? Great places like Davey Jones Locker and Evolution Boulder are just for 2 examples. Not to forget to mention the classic Rail problem. Now that I live in CO I realized how much I miss QC. Max is correct. People need to enjoy it while they have it and speak out about how much the area means to them.