Cold Springs
California
> Northwest California
Description
A sport climbing and bouldering area along Titlow Hill Road, up on the ridge above the Redwood Creek Watershed.
This high elevation area has easy parking, a short approach, and is defined by numerous moderate sport climbs with closely spaced bolts, as well as many challenging bouldering routes. In addition, one can find a handful of sport routes in the 5.12 range and a handful of beginner/moderate traditional climbs.
Many of the climbs can be accessed from the top and can be top-roped from fixed anchors. The climber will find solid rock on most climbs.
The season for this area is Spring-Fall, as winter often brings heavy snow to the area, limiting road access.
The area is still under development so please be respectful of on-going projects.
Getting There
From the coast, it takes about an hour to get to Cold Springs and Split Rock. From Arcata, drive up Hwy 299 for 30 miles, or 15 miles up Hwy 299 from Willow Creek arriving at Berry Summit. From here go up Titlow Hill Road for 7.4 miles until you arrive at an indistinct road on the right. Some times this road is signed Rd 5N27, but the sign is often missing. This is the turn-off for Cold Springs, a US Forest Service area.
Drive down this road , it will wind around to the right and down a hill for a few hundred yards until you arrive a largish parking area. This area is marked by a large downed log, a fence around the actual spring, and a kind-of sort-of round-a-bout. Park on the down hill side and make sure you don’t block the road.
Split Rock Area:
There are a lot of unmarked trails in and around this area. To get to Split Rock itself, there is a trail on the northeast side of the round-a-bout, follow this trail northwards, more or less contouring slope, through the woods, cross a small meadow after a few hundred yards. At this point, the trail becomes more distinct as it continues north. The trail passes through some more small meadows and forest patches. The trail passes by the top of Split Rock after about 3-5 min of walking from parking lot. Right before you arrive to Split Rock, you go down a short steep slope and see a small year round spring on your uphill side. The rock is now just downhill on your left. The rock doesn’t look super distinct from the uphill side.
Roof Rock, Block Rock, and Crack Rock Area:
From parking area, walk downhill westward for ~350 meters until you see cliffs to your north. There is an indistinct trail that connects this area to the Split Rock area. To find this, just contour at more or less the same elevation to find the other area
Secondly, Split Rock is the name of a local coastal rock with a significant history. To the Yurok tribe, every coastal rock is sacred. 15-20 years ago, a few Yurok elders brought up the idea of petitioning to close all rocks from Moonstone on north. In a meeting, climbers offered not to touch the last un-climbed coastal rock: Split Rock (the original coastal one), and nowadays we pretty much don't even talk about it.
On the main Redwood Coast page, this shows up alongside coastal crags like Promontory, Footsteps, High Bluffs, etc... so I've had a few people ask me if "Split Rock is still closed to climbing." I think for logistical purposes of sorting this area for folks to find what's there, as well as limit the confusion with the highly sensitive coastal Split Rock that came before this one, changing the overarching area that shows up in the main Redwood Coast page to Coldsprings would be a good idea. Then listing Split Rock under that as a sub-area alongside the Outer Rocks would be good.
---Coldsprings---
+Split Rock
-Dome Rock
-Spire Rock
-Stoner Rock
-Psychedelic Rock
-Maths Rock
+Outer Rocks
-Crack Rock
-Block Rock
-Andrea Nicatina Boulder
-UFO Boulder
-Black Google Boulder Sep 6, 2017
Truckee, CA
I'd suggest that you create a "Split Rock" and an "Outer Rocks" area within Cold Springs, then I can move the sub-areas to one or the other. That way, you still "own" the areas (because you created them), and you'll be able to edit them as you choose. If an admin creates them, you won't be able to edit them. Sep 12, 2017
Arcata, CA
I would recommend starting on the trail from the north-east part of the parking area, as suggested, however I found that the trail falls due west from there. We followed it west until the rocks were visible! Nov 2, 2022