Recommendations - easy + fun + accessible single/multi pitch?

Hi all,
Heading for a road trip holiday to South Utah / N Arizona in October. Since I'm in the UK, it's hard to judge where to go.
Hoping to get some recommendations for crags/routes between St George and Grand Staircase-Escalante. St. George seems to have tons of stuff in the area but I'd really love to get some advice on where to head to get the most out of it. What are the must-dos and best places to go?
As I'll be heading with my partner, ideally we'd be looking for fun and easy (5.10a and below) sport or trad. Preferably quick access and/or camping. We're not too bothered if it's a bit busier, either.
Multi Pitch would be great, but variety and choice are more important, so we'd rather be in a place with plenty routes than only have the choice of one big multi pitch.
Thanks all!

Might help to include what range of difficulty “easy” means to you. One person’s easy is another’s project.

 

Jared Casper wrote: Might help to include what range of difficulty “easy” means to you. One person’s easy is another’s project.

 

Definitely! Edited.

'easy' would be 5.10a and below

Zion is the obvious choice between St. George and Grand Staircase. Your climbing choices will be a bit limited keeping it 10a and below as 5.10 is on the lower end of climbs there, but plenty there to spend some time, you should do the hikes, etc. as well! I personally don't climb hard enough to go there often so hopefully others can help out, but check out the Tunnel Wall Areas which includes the uber popular Ashtar Command. The Cerberus Gendarme has a handful of single pitch cracks in the 10- range.  There are also a lot of longer adventure climbs that if you're into that.    Led By Sheep is a super fun 4 pitch 5.5 "sport" route (i.e. run out slab) to the top of a butte that makes for a fun morning.

Around St. George, I think Snow Canyon State Park is going to be your best bet. Easy access to lots of fun 2-3 pitch trad. Like Zion a lot of it will be on the tougher end for you but still plenty to do under 5.10. The Prophesy Wall is another must-see with easy access to an essentially grid bolted 60m face.  Green Valley Gap, Black Rocks, and Shotgun Alley are all fun moderate crags with short approaches , but are also fairly short cliffs (~10m) . Everything else in the area is mostly 5.11+ sport and bouldering.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Jared!
Thinking of heading straight to snow Valley and perhaps stopping past green Valley gap and prophesy wall.
Will be spending a few days on zion anyway so I'll look into what's appealing there.
Can you give some advice on the state of the road to lime kiln? Since I'll be around in a rental, im cautious as to how much abuse it will get on some unpaved roads.

Any suggestions on what to do if the crags happen to be wet?

Snow Canyon State Park, about as easy of an approach as it gets.

​https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105716820/snow-canyon-state-park​​​

Jon L wrote: Thanks Jared!
Thinking of heading straight to snow Valley and perhaps stopping past green Valley gap and prophesy wall.
Will be spending a few days on zion anyway so I'll look into what's appealing there.
Can you give some advice on the state of the road to lime kiln? Since I'll be around in a rental, im cautious as to how much abuse it will get on some unpaved roads.

Any suggestions on what to do if the crags happen to be wet?

Don't climb sandstone if its wet. Good rule of thumb, if the dirt/sand sticks to your shoes on your approach don't climb. Wait 24-48 hrs after a storm to climb. 

There are other areas that are not sandstone that can be climbed when the weather turns.

Black Rocks

(Basalt)
Huricave (Lime stone)
VRG (Lime stone)

If its raining, a drive through Kolab Canyon is quite nice, lots of water falls. On the other hand if its dry, Namaste is an amazing climb in Kolab.
On down days go hiking, mtn biking or canyoneering.

If the crags are wet there's a lot of great hikes in and around Snow Canyon. Pine Valley a little ways out of town also has good hiking. There's also a lot of excellent mountain biking if you're into that and willing to rent. The MTB trails around Green Valley Gap are usually good to go in the wet. If things are just damp and you can't climb the sand stone, you can head East out to the Utah Hills area for some limestone. If you are coming after June 30, Black Rocks is also okay if things are damp.

I'm not familiar with the state of the road to lime kiln.

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105717250/prophesy-wall

https://www.veyopool.com/activities/rock-climbing

 

Do you need to start in St. George? If you start in Las Vegas, Red Rocks is an amazing destination for both trad and sport single and multi-pitch in that grade range.

I second the recommendation for Led By Sheep in Zion... the climbing is super easy and not terribly exciting, but the location/summit is lovely. You can also combine it with Keyhole Canyon for an introduction to canyoneering that will feel easy/straightforward to a climber. In general, Zion has world-class canyoneering, and many will be do-able with a trad climber's skillset.

Also, if you are interested in some desert "mountaineering", Lady Mountain in Zion has a really fun mostly-scramble with a few short sections that most pitch out:
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/111485753/original-route

Andrew Mertens wrote:
I second the recommendation for Led By Sheep in Zion... the climbing is super easy and not terribly exciting, but the location/summit is lovely. You can also combine it with Keyhole Canyon for an introduction to canyoneering that will feel easy/straightforward to a climber. In general, Zion has world-class canyoneering, and many will be do-able with a trad climber's skillset.

Would love to do led by sheep! Will need to see if I can borrow a pair of 60m ropes. Only got 50m twins since our hills here in the UK aren't generally that big!
Thanks for the other recommendations!

B Jolley wrote:

Don't climb sandstone if its wet. Good rule of thumb, if the dirt/sand sticks to your shoes on your approach don't climb. Wait 24-48 hrs after a storm to climb. 

There are other areas that are not sandstone that can be climbed when the weather turns.

Black Rocks (Basalt)
Huricave (Lime stone)
VRG (Lime stone)

If its raining, a drive through Kolab Canyon is quite nice, lots of water falls. On the other hand if its dry, Namaste is an amazing climb in Kolab.
On down days go hiking, mtn biking or canyoneering.

Thanks! Same etiquette applies on this side of the pond about not climbing sandstone after rain.

Kolab is looking pretty sweet.Also will be heading to Paria Canyon, very excited for all the landscapes!

Would love to do led by sheep! Will need to see if I can borrow a pair of 60m ropes. Only got 50m twins since our hills here in the UK aren't generally that big!

From the route comments:

My group tried to rap down the 3rd pitch with an 80m rope and came up about 10ft short of the 2nd belay ledge.

I don't remember any of the rappels being rope-stretchers with two 60m ropes, and the above comment makes me think 2 50m ropes would work... but I don't want to sandbag you.