The Bishop Rock Climbing

Approach The Bishop as you would for Cynical Pinnacle. Parking can be had off JeffCo 96, 3.8 miles from the intersection with road 97 and the South Platte River. Hike up the mining road past the cutoff for The Dome. You can bushwhack a ridge line that provides line of sight guidance to The Bishop, in the past a cairn trail takes off from the drainage heading West. The hiking takes about 60 minutes, and it is indeed all uphill.

One way to get up: per Mike Carrington: park by the river where the bathrooms are and head up the ravine to the north, away from the river. Pass the sign that points to the trail leading right to Sunshine Wall. In a few hundred yards on the left, there are a few small cairns which is the start of a mining road. Head up the road about 5 or 10 minutes, and look for more cairns on the right that head up the ridge straight towards The Dome. At some point when The Bishop looks close, you will have to go left and bushwhack up to it. I would suggest going left lower rather than higher as I went high and encountered a huge, boulder-filled ravine.

Per Kevin Stricker: the best approach I have found is to follow the "main" Dome trail up past the cutoff for Topographical Oceans. When you hit the ridge, hang a left and walk on mostly flat ground to the back side of the Bishop. From here, it's just a 5-10 minutes to any route on the Bishop.

Per T Dz: the current approach goes through private property.

Per Christine Hartman, JeffCo Ecological Services, access to The Bishop is currently across the JeffCo property closed for raptor closures and are subjective to the expensive fines. Legal access via through adjacement private property has not been work out yet.

From Shaun Reed (via T Dz): the landowner Jim came up to visit while we were climbing, and he is a really nice guy. He told us The Bishop is actually on his property, and that he is cool with climbers up there. HOWEVER, he did mention that the approach beta in Haas' new South Platte guidebook is NOT correct! He wants climbers to take the trail up to the Dome and traverse across from there. We did both ways, and hiking past the Dome doesn't seem much longer. So please respect the landowner, and keep access to this beautiful rock open.