Colorado
> S Platte
At something like 1,000 feet high, Big Rock is perhaps the largest formation in the Platte and well worth the very full day it takes to find, climb, and descend. A day on Big Rock is not sporty, it's an adventure. Most of the rock is typical Platte, with smooth water streaks and crystal pinching, though there are some areas of friable rock. On the more traveled routes (
e.g. Childhood's End), this has probably been reduced to reasonable levels. Most of the routes rely on bolts to some degree, though many are widely spaced. Bolts have recently been replaced on some of the more popular routes.
Descent: one 150 foot rappel down the back (northeast) side of the summit, reached by a short, dicey downclimb from the top.
Ken Trout sums up the approach in his 1988 article in
Rock and Ice, which is paraphrased below. It is also possible to approach from the Turkey Rock area to the east.
The best way to reach Big Rock Candy Mountain, with two-wheel drive, is from the west side of the South Fork of the South Platte River. From Goose Creek campground, drive almost four miles further south toward Lake George, passing the turn-off to the Lost Creek Trailhead. You will then find a a branch road to the left (east). his turn is more prominent than other, smaller left turns along the way. Take this turn, and then travel over a mile up, and then down onto a ridge, from where you will see Big Rock very clearly. Park on the open ridge where the trail drops down to the right (south; with four-wheel drive, it is possible to descend to the river, but this does not provide much of an advantage). Hike down the north side of the ridge toward Big Rock. There is a trail in the drainage which will take you to the Platte River. When the river is low, it is possible to wade across to the easy trail on the other side. After gaining the trail, turn left (downstream) until under the rock. If you want to avoid getting wet, scramble up and down along the river (downstream) until you get to a giant boulder choke in the river just below Big Rock. Crossing here requires some boulder hopping and dicey friction above rushing water (rock shoes needed? and unbuckle your pack's waist belt). Either way, the short remaining distance to the toe of Big Rock is all too obvious.
The ancillary summit on the right is Gum Drop Spire, separated from Big Rock by an obvious deep, smooth chimney. The route
Childhood's End begins near the entrance to the chimney. The route
Field of Dreams climbs the prominent prow up the center of Big Rock. The smooth prow right of the chimney on Gum Drop Spire is
Sweet Catastrophe.
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West of Boulder, CO
Las Vegas
MO + CA
Around Boulder, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
Roads are closed on both approaches, so either will require around 3 miles of hiking each way.
The Eastern approach from Westcreek: The road is pretty good to Turkey Rock CG, after that it is still pretty good but there are two spots where erosion from small streams has created little ravines that would be hard to cross in a standard 2wd vehicle. I got over them in my Subaru Outback with some minor scraping. The "Metberry Gulch" jeep trail is well marked with a metal sign, but there is a new-ish sign indicating the road is closed. It doesn't matter anyway because the road is completely impassible. About 1/4 mile down the road there is a 6' deep ravine going accross the road, so unless you're driving the Batmobile, you wouldn't get down this road anyway. This road is pretty easy to ride a mt. bike down with a few spots where you need to walk (ie, the ravine). Riding up is much harder. I probably rode 50% of the way back and walked the rest...and this was without a pack. In short, I wouldn't recommend using a mt. bike to access from this side if you have a climbing pack. This road is mostly downhill on the way in, but contains a lot of up and down and the road surface is very sandy making it difficult to ride a bike on with any efficiency. It took me 2.5 hours from the start of the "Metberry" road to get to the top of Big Rock and back on a bike with no climbing pack.
The Western approach from Lake George: Having scouted both approaches now, I will be using this one when I actually try to climb this thing. The road you drive in from Lake George is in very good condition...you could get your lowridin' '64 Impala in there. The road that takes you down the ridge to Big Rock is still blocked by the gate (as of early May). This road is in very good shape and would be easy to drive down over half way. After that, there were some very large erosion burms that would be hard to cross with a long wheel base. Anyway, this stretch goes very fast on a mt. bike, as it is mostly downhill. You can get to the edge of the canyon in about 30 minutes on a bike. I didn't go further than here, but it looked like a relatively good trail leads down to the river. It seems like you could be at the river within an hour of leaving the car. The way back would be worse. On the way back, it is mostly uphill. The worst part would be the last half of the road where it descends steeply into the canyon...if you have a pack, you'll be walking your bike for this stretch which is probably 1/2-3/4 of a mile. After that, it's not too bad riding, but it would be worse with a pack.
Either way, you'll be in for a long day, but it's still shorter than hiking to the Diamond. I'm personally morally opposed to ATV's, but if you're not, they would make it real easy to get in there...of course you would probably be breaking the law....
The best bet would be for the FS to open that gate, but I suspect they feel that they don't have the manpower or something. It's there way of punishing us for our elected officials cutting their budgets I guess.
Oh, I almost forgot, the gate blocking the Western approach is very tall, so a short car or convertible jeep could probably drive under it. Jun 30, 2005
Boulder, CO
For the western approach, a mountain bike will save you an hour or so total on the approach/de-approach, since the old road is closed to motor vehicles. I measured the parking area to be exactly 3.6 miles past the Goose Creek CG. The closed road is in good shape, and we were able to ride it both directions with climbing packs. It was about 3 miles, and took 15 minutes to ride in, and maybe 45 to ride out. Sep 7, 2006
Golden, CO
SWEET CATASTROPHE FIRST ASCENT INFO: Peter Gallagher and Peter Williams. If you like this type of climbing, then you may think the quality rates more than the one star given.
Pete and Pete really explored the whole area extensively. In addition to several big wall routes, they also climbed on the dome across the river (Tick Dome) and a very beautuful flying buttress in the Lost Creek Wilderness, past the Shafthouse, 5.10r/x. Jul 14, 2007
CO
Colorado Springs
He's been promoted to "Father of the Year!" Congrats to you both!! & thanks, Kev. Oct 10, 2007
Golden, CO
Dinosaur, Colorado
I don't know who the first people on top of The Big Rock were, nor do I know how they got there. When Peter Gallagher and I first topped out in 1979 there was a small, very weathered, wooden structure on top, something resembling a weather station enclosure. It obviously was not put there by climbers.
The topo has a line marked as the "first ascent" of the rock. This line was climbed by Don Doucette and Earl Wiggins sometime in the mid 70s. I talked to Don soon after Peter and I did Fields of Dreams, and Don told me that he and Earl went out to the Big Rock with a huge bag of bolts, intent on climbing the buttress that eventually Peter and I climbed with Fields of Dreams. For one reason or another, they didn't persist in this intent, and ended up climbing another route instead. They placed a few bolts on the slabs between Rotten Teeth and the central gully, but I'm not sure how many. These may just have been belay bolts. I'm now wondering if they actually got to the top because my notes on the conversation also suggest that Don established the descent rappels off the summit after his "second ascent"--so possibly they backed off before the summit.
In any case, Don returned with someone else (possibly Kurt Rasmussen?). He reclimbed the first pitch or two of his first route and then moved left into the prominent gully that "Rotten Teeth" enters on its short, fifth pitch (he probably entered it at about the same spot). He then climbed up the low angled rotten groove that is the sixth pitch of "Rotten Teeth." From this point, judging from what I remember Don telling me, he continued up right on a layback/flake feature that becomes a big, right-facing corner, and then eventually ended up in the "Forest" area between and just below the two summits. (Peter and I always just called this "The Forest.") From there, he may have finished by a new pitch, or perhaps by a pitch he'd climbed before with Earl. In any case, this is marked on the topo as the "second ascent."
The third ascent of the Big Rock was probably by Leonard Coyne, Wendy White, Ken Sims, and possibly a fourth person. I don't know the exact location of their route, but the topo shows its general line. It was written up in The Golden Book of Bullshit, the new route record at The Cobbler in the Springs during the '70s, but that description was pretty vague. I think they did a slab pitch to the left of the start of Fields of Dreams, and then scrambled as far up the main, central gully as they could. From there they climbed some horrendous-sounding unprotected off-width to the Forest. Their last pitch(s) may have been already climbed by Don Doucette on his routes. They called their route "Hot Ice Cream" and rated it 5.10. This must have been a year or two before we climbed Fields of Dreams.
Thus, possibly Fields of Dreams was the fourth ascent of The Big Rock.
The other route on the topo that hasn't been described elsewhere on these pages is called Petered Out. Pete and I knew this was the last FA we were going to do on The Big Rock, thus the name. The bolted pitches that get you from the Gum Drop Spire to the main summit were established during this 1980 ascent. The route provides access to the summit by climbing nothing harder than 5.9-, but there's actually an even easier way. I once found a way to scramble up easy ledges behind the Gum Drop to its base, and from there the upper slab pitches get you to the summit via just 5.7. Apr 2, 2008
Santa Monica, Ca.
Colorado Springs
On our try for a single push day we were in the middle of the roof/ chimney pitch, Glenn above it at the base of the headwall, me suffering across the roof then stuffing myself into the chimney slot. Poor Glenn- watched as lightning shot all across the sky and water cascaded down the wall above. Next thing I knew I woke up spinning on the rope at the mouth of the chimney, stunned by the swirling view I got back on the rock and started up the slot to Glenn, I smelled a burnt, electrical kind of scent as I climbed, finally I could see Glenn out in the rain and I shouted that I thought I may have been hit by lightning and been knocked out...... he stared at me with literal FIRE in his eyes and said "YOU-- I GOT IT RIGHT HERE!!!! Grabbing his crotch!!! Needless to say, the boys rapped into the slot shaken badly. Slamming our biggest cams, we rapped the single line to the deck ....... and ran. At the truck, we then SLAMMED OUR BOTTLE of victory champagne (we had planned to be heroes, not the two trembling pups that we now were), all the beer, smoked everything in sight, and drove home. That is how SHOCK TREATMENT got its name. Cheers. (This is a an excerpt from a past post.) Apr 2, 2008
Dinosaur, Colorado
Santa Monica, Ca.
You're right, my old beat up brain has the "F" and the "G" occupying the same synapse. Apr 3, 2008
Golden, CO
Kevin - That's crazy! And amazing! Great story, glad you made it out alive! May 13, 2008
Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
Golden, CO
Westminster, CO
Is it Helen's Dome? or am I turned around?
I've been told it's The Turret. Ok, that makes sense. Now I've got my bearings. It's been awhile since I've been to that neck of the woods.
Thanks guys! Jun 5, 2008
Golden, CO
Glenwood ,Co
Is the dihedral-looking feature right of route d in Pete's topo climbable? Jul 22, 2008
Boulder, CO
Thanks!
Madaleine Apr 18, 2009
FIve Points, Colorado and Pine
The Dungeon, NM
Golden, CO
Ophir, CO
The approach from the East on Metberry Gulch Road is currently in good enough condition to drive with almost any 4-wheel drive SUV. Clearance is definitely the most important factor. We drove it in a stock Nissan xTerra and hit 1 rock during a cruxy washed out section. Overall, it's a burly road, but it is very do-able and drops you off at the parking area pretty much right behind the Big Rock.
From where we parked, the approach took us about 45 minutes along the formation's southern flank, but this could easily be cut down to 30 minutes if you knew exactly where you were going. Once at the base, Jason's line is pretty obvious, and you can see the first 4 pitches from the ground. We took a leisurely 7 hours to climb the Big Rock, which included a long lunch break up in the Forest.
The rappels are on the northeast corner of the north summit. They are kind of difficult to see and require a little scrambling down a water groove to get to the them, but, boy, are they bomber! Beautiful shiny bolts and chains courtesy of the ASCA. With one 60m, we rapped probably 50 ft to the next station, which consists of one shiny new bolt and one old bolt. From here, it was easy to get to ground. Overall, it was a fun adventure and a very moderate line up one of the coolest granite formations in Colorado! Go do it! Jun 8, 2014
Manitou Springs, CO
Westcreek
Looks good from afar...but it is far from good. Sep 19, 2017