The Observatory Rock Climbing

The Observatory could be considered as an extension of the Gallery, on the climber's right or south side. The crag can be seen from the parking lot of the Second Pullout. Its most prominent feature is the broad, low-angle, smoothed-over arete on the right side. The arete has a large, "cyclops eye" hueco on the top that overlooks the parking lot. (Around the arete, to the right, is Stone Wall.) The Observatory has fully-bolted single-pitch and multi-pitch routes as well as a couple traditional routes. It gets sun from late morning throughout the rest of the day and tends to catch the wind on the upper wall.

The main wall, to the left of the arete, is characterized by an upper vertical section, a middle scramble section, and a corridor at the very bottom (unseen until you're there). Most of the routes are on the upper vertical section, or in the corridor at the bottom. A couple multipitch routes climb through some steeper parts of the middle scramble section, otherwise it's just a fourth class nuisance in the middle of the wall. There is a sloping ledge at the base of the upper vertical section for accessing those routes (all of which have two bolt belayer anchors). For most routes it's best to approach this sloping ledge from the right by the route Bewitched. The two left-most routes, Nociceptor and Shinigami, are best accessed from the right end of the Gallery. That said, you can walk/scramble across the entire middle section, it's not that bad if you're used to it.

The corridor at the very bottom of the wall is split into left and right sections by a large boulder jam. The left side contains 4 routes and is best accessed by approaching as for the Gallery, but instead of scrambling up left to the Gallery, go straight up through a notch to the base of the cliff. Turn right and pass under some vegetation and emerge into the corridor. For routes in the middle and right sections of the corridor don't go through the notch, instead go up the ledge immediately right of the notch, and scramble down onto the boulder jam or into the right side of the corridor just past the boulder jam.