Sunny Side Rock Climbing

The Sunny Side is located NE of the Parking Lot. The crag is visible from the viewpoint, so locate it before you head down. The approach is not well-marked, but it is a good trail. If you find yourself thrashing through cactus, go-back! Losing the trail could certainly ruin your trip!

Once dialed, approach takes ~10 minutes. From the Parking Lot, hike E along the N side of the highway towards the tunnel. About 50 yds before the road goes through the tunnel, cross the guard rail (on the N side of the road) and pickup a faint trail that parallels the road. This trail does NOT head down the enormous talus slope. Instead, contour steadily downward along a large ledge, just below a 20-30 foot high limestone cliffband. If you're thinking to yourself, 'that's not a limestone cliffband, its vertically stacked dirt' turn-around, head back to your car, and continue E along the highway to Sitting Bull Falls.

Anyway, descend along the ledge all the way to the creek at the base of Fresnal Canyon. Once at the creek, walk upstream 10-20 yds, and cross the stream by hopping rocks. Once on the N side of the stream, head upstream another 20 yds, then scramble up 5 feet to the first limestone ledge, then head back downstream about 10 yds, and locate the easiest spot to climb up another 5 feet to the next ledge. Once on this ledge, head back up stream to the obvious 15-foot waterfall. About 10 feet downstream from the waterfall, scramble 15 feet up some cool flowstone, that unfortunately bears no resemblance to the rock you will ultimately be roping up for.

Once above the waterfall, pickup another good trail. This trail undulates up, down, left, right, but ultimately continues upstream in the canyon bottom. DO NOT head straight up the hillside once you surmount the waterfall! It sucks, and it erodes the hillside. Anyway, continue upstream for about 50 yds, passing under a few large trees. Once you are directly below "Heatstroke" (on the right end of the Sunny Side Cliff), the trail begins to switch back up the canyon. Continue up for 2-3 minutes. The trail ends below "Melanoma"