Sesame Street Rock Climbing

"Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"

Hmmm...Find your way to Mary Jane Falls trailhead parking. Google maps is not much help here. Follow the 157 (Kyle Canyon Road) past the Charleston Fire Station and go straight on Echo Road where the 157 turns left to go up the hill to the old Charleston Hotel.

Follow Echo Road past the residential and look for signs to the Mary Jane parking lot trail head. There's a parking lot at the trail-head for Trail Canyon but you drive through the gate and up to the trail head parking for Mary Jane Falls. This is parking also for Yellow Pine, Walla Walla and Mary Jane cliff. Look south and you will see the 1200 ft.grey and golden Universal Wall. Sesame Street, a dark grey limestone slab, is tucked in on the lower right hand side and not easy to see from the parking lot..

Cross the wood fence and go south across the meadow. There is a chopped off at 4' small pine tree for a good initial marker. Cross the dry wash. Behind it, still south, is a steep gully. See photo of trail start on this page. Ascend the gully about 60 meters and break right towards a old large stump. Just before the stump the climber's trail begins switch-backing up the hill. There aren't many cairns now but the trail is pretty clear. It generally follows linked game trails up the rounded buttress. About 3/4 of a mile up there will be a low limestone cliff on your left. Follow the trail to the top of buttress and a very short descent into the hanging "meadow". Go through the copse of bent over Aspen trees and climb the slope to the wall. I'm gonna guess it's 1.75 miles. Average time up with a load is 35 to 45 minutes.

Sesame Street shades in the afternoon. As of April 29th around 1:30 PM. Climb slightly harder or much harder stuff in the shade while you wait for the sun to pass over.

Alternately you can ascend the main drainage gully of the Universal Wall. Simply cross the meadow going slightly west to find the start of the trail. It is also a good trail and shorter than the first one but with more rocks and downed logs to cross over. Takes you into the bottom of the hanging meadow.

A couple of caveats: Don't go into that area when snow is on the rim of the Universal Wall or overnight temperatures are below freezing on Mt. Charleston. Frost heave can loosen rocks at the top of the wall. You will be exposing yourself to rockfall from the rim. Don't go after a couple days of heavy rain for the same reason. Look at the pock marks on the slab and you will see Sesame Street gets rockfall when the conditions are right. The second bolt on "Don't Cry Big Bird" was bent over by rockfall. Believe me a helmet won't help much in that situation.

2012 we started climbing at Sesame Street in early May. 2013 we started April 15th right after the temps on Charleston were no longer below 32° at night. When you can first go varies from year to year of course. Season ends sometime in late September generally.

Please respect any fluids caches you may find. Any tidbits of gear: Stashed ropes, stick-clip poles, haul sacks....Leave them where you found them. These routes were created as a service to the climbing community and in no way represent "test pieces". Merely a cool place to climb very moderate routes with friends and family during the heat of summer. The rest you know: Don't leave trash around. If you find trash pack it out. Respect the plant life (some is on the "sensitive list") and the animal life. It is not unusual to see deer bedding in the area. Dogs threaten them.

In the snow covered areas Stinging Nettle grows; another reason to leave your dog at home. You can use " Sting Stop" to treat it; wear socks and over the knee climbing pants when hiking through it. There are also some wild raspberries in the area.