Estes area or Happy Hour? - Group of beginners.

Hello. I'll be a visiting in June and climbing with a friend who lives outside of Denver. He is considering take us to either Happy Hour Crag or some place in the Esters area. He has never climbed around Estes, but is an avid climber.

He will be taking a group of about 5 people who range from experianced indoor climbers to never climbined anywhere before. With our schedules we are considering either climbing Estes on Sunday or Happy Hour in the early evening. This would be the first week of June.

Can someone let me know which will likely be less crowded...Estes on Sunday or Happy Hour around 4pm? Reading info on this site I realize both are busy times. And if you got input and which you take a small group of beginners that would be great. Thanks!

(Probably obvious, but we'll be doing top rope routes)

Happy Hour Crag around 4pm probably won't be too busy, just a good chance of afternoon storms. Estes Park is a big area with a lot of rock. I am not familiar with crags with easy top rope access in Estes Park but I'm sure there is plenty available.

Happy Hour crag is a small, steep crag that is about 200' wide. Estes Park is a sprawling area that is measured in square miles and managed by multiple agencies.

Happy Hour is close to Boulder.
Happy Hour has easy setups for top ropes.
Happy Hour is close to the road.
Happy Hour has cracks and corners.

Estes Park (EP) has whatever you want.
Climb at Jurassic Park for lots of variety and great views.
Climb at the Thumb and Needle for a short approach.
Deville Three Rocks for great easy multi pitch.
Batman Rock for a wide variety of climbs, a breathless approach and great views.
The Ironclads for short approaches, top ropes, a variety of climbs and broken glass.

Thanks Brendan and Malcolm for the replies. I forgot to take into considering the afternoon storms. I was concerned about Estes being to busy, but your comparison on the size of both makes me think we'll be ok. Thanks for the location suggestions too.

Afternoon storms around Estes can be a concern due to lightning (most rocks are exposed).

Are you talking about leading a single pitch route and then setting up a toprope? If not there are not many places around EP where you can scramble up to set up a TR without leading. Guide services and/or the YMCA of the Rockies will be camped out on a lot of those easy routes on a weekend in June. A lot of the closer stuff on Lumpy Ridge (including Batman Rock) is closed due to Raptor nesting through July.

Thanks Kevin. I am not a lead climber, but the people going with us area...so I'm making sure they read your post so they can decide if that should rule out EP.

We'll actually be climbing starting 3/31 and there the first week of June. Supposedly that is a couple weeks before the main busy season, so with any luck wherever we go won't be to swamped.

FWIW, I wouldn't recommend Jurassic at 4pm. The approach is 30 minutes or more.

Note, the drive may need to be taken into account, depending on where you are starting. From Denver, it's probably 30-40 minutes to Happy Hour and 70-80 minutes to Estes Park.

In that area, though, is Lily Mountain. There are 3 tiers of crags 5-10 minutes from the road with ~35 routes in the 5.4 to 5.10 range. All are pretty short, <25m. Many are bolted. The lowest crag has a 5.5 & couple 5.6 routes. You'll find something open there. It's fairly protected except for rain.

Happy Hour has the issue that you may need 60m ropes to toprope some climbs.

The Thumb and Needle in Estes have limited parking, FYI.

Another area that'll have lots of options may be North Table Mountain (25-35 minute drive) & its subsidiary crags in Golden with 400+ of climbs in the 5.5-5.12 range. It could be hot if the weather is warm.

I was at happy hour two weekends ago and there was a giude with 10+ learning how to anchor trees and rappel down on everyone leading..there were at least 8 other parties and I witnessed a guy ground fall without a helmet..just my experience

The other thing to consider is altitude and acclimatization. Jurassic Park is over 9000 ft. That can be a lot for someone who has just arrived from sea level.