BETA PHOTO: Looking South from middle of the wall.
Description
An obvious wall of clean basalt lies 17 miles south of Caliente on SR317. The cliffs are just off the road. The road is graded dirt and can get washed out. The climbing is both sport and trad. There are beautiful corners and clean, blank face climbs with bolts. The rock is similar to Crawdad Canyon UT. and/or Paradise Forks AZ. This is a remote area with no facilities. There is no guidebook and photos of the area are very rare. Climbing can be had year round although winters can be cold and summer gets hot! Watch the weather as the road can get washed out anytime of year.
Getting There
Find your way to Caliente, NV and head south on SR 317 for 17 miles. There is also a dirt road heading NE off of 93 (Kane Springs Rd.) that will take you to Elgin and SR 317; from there a short drive N will get you to the cliff. I recommend at least a 4x2 with some ground clearance. The latter route is shorter but can take just as long and there are no services (bring a gas can). The GPS location is a guess based on the map.
Fran, thanks for posting this area! Freakin awesome! Jonny and I drove out there yesterday, and checked it out. Some of the paved road (by the routes) has been damaged (washed out) by floods; was still okay to drive on though. Loved the dirt road through the beautiful desert, and Caliente had a cool little market to get provisions.
I must say I was surprised to find a mini guide to Rainbow Canyon. Strange names for some mighty familiar routes. About 65% of the routes were put by me and Richard Harrison, 30% by Gary Fike, and the remaining 5% by others, including Bob Finlay and John Middendorf, two of the area "pioneers". Much assistance was given by Gary's wife Tanya and Richard's daughter Lisa.
All the routes are named and each has a great story to go with its first ascent. We put much sweat and money into the project, hoping to create a peaceful area for locals. So we resisted putting out a guide book. The area was also a sensitive riparian corridor before the big flood and we thought it best to keep it low key. We have had problems with plagiarism (some just trying to make a buck), false info and taking of credit where it wasn't due by some visitors to the cliffs. So at long last we have decided to put together a correct guide for Rainbow. The area is very special; a great mixture of cracks and chimneys, superb technical face climbing and awesome aretes. Please enjoy the routes, keep the place clean and spend some money in nearby Caliente while you're there.
Rainbow Canyon
Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!
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