Climbing destinations without a car?

Though I do have a car, I was thinking about bus/bike/walking friendly climbing areas that you can visit without a car. US destinations would be preferable. Boulder, CO seems like an obvious answer as you can get to Flagstaff Mtn, Boulder Canyon, even Eldorado with a bike. 

Just an anecdote, I once visited Gothenburg, Sweden and was able to take the public bus to the crag (called Utby) which had sport, trad, and bouldering.

Any suggestions?

In the northeast, there is bus service to North Conway--with Cathedral, Whitehorse, and Humphrey's Ledges not far from town--easy to get rides from the climbing stores in town or bike ride, though camping would be an issue. Also in New Hampshire, regular bus service from Boston to Plymouth, and should be an easy (just a few miles) taxi/uber/hitch to the campground across from the cliffs in Rumney. There is also regular bus service from NYC to New Paltz for the Gunks--again should be reasonably easy to get a ride from Rock and Snow to the cliff--also bikeable. Again camping will be an issue--the AAC campground is within walking distance from the cliff, but can't stay there very long term. None of these are really day-trip public transportation options like Utby. There are surely many 'urban' crags across the country accessible by public transport (I know of several around Boston) but none are close to 'destination' areas.

Not in the U.S., but Brazil. In Rio you can take public transportation to various climbing spots, including single- and multi-pitch. Can probably even ride a bicycle. In Bahia (different state of Brazil), there is a town called Lençóis where you can walk to some good crags. Also a great place for hiking, backpacking, and swimming. 

Alan Rubin wrote:

North Conway really stands out. It's only a few miles to the cliffs. Taking a bus in and then walking to camping/climbing/etc. is 100% doable. 

If Plymouth and New Paltz make the cut, then we can also include the New River Gorge -- Beckley has a bus stop and there's a regional transit system that will get you up to Fayetteville from Beckley. Wouldn't recommend it, but possible :)

How is Jtree for something like this? Not now in the summer but winter/spring?

Skyler Maxwell wrote:

How is Jtree for something like this? Not now in the summer but winter/spring?

You need a car for Jtree. No running water in the park and there’s no public transportation

Yosemite NP is accessible by public transportation, and of course once you are there there is the valley shuttle. 

You can bike from where ever you are to most any climbing venue in the U.S. you can reach with a car.

Definitely not in the US, but here in Australasia there are many crags that can be walked or biked to, or reached via public transit. Some of the best cliffs in the Blue Mtns are basically in Katoomba and Blackheath, and there’s also hundreds of routes right in town in Nowra, NSW. Mt Wellington sits right above Hobart, TAS. In QLD there’s Kangaroo Point in Brisbane (probably the most urban crag in the world) and Mt Coolum on the Sunny Coast. In other words, some of the destination areas of Australia are smack dab in the middle of towns or cities.

Where I live, in Christchurch, NZ, there are numerous crags that can be reached by bike or bus, hell, there’s even one a 10 minute walk from my house (decidedly not world class though!). Wānaka also has some suburban cragging, and Paynes Ford is a short walk from the centre of Tākaka.

All told, Aus/NZ are good places to live or visit if you don’t like long drives to go climbing. 

David Jefferson wrote:

Definitely not in the US, but here in Australasia there are many crags that can be walked or biked to, or reached via public transit. Some of the best cliffs in the Blue Mtns are basically in Katoomba and Blackheath, and there’s also hundreds of routes right in town in Nowra, NSW. Mt Wellington sits right above Hobart, TAS. In QLD there’s Kangaroo Point in Brisbane (probably the most urban crag in the world) and Mt Coolum on the Sunny Coast. In other words, some of the destination areas of Australia are smack dab in the middle of towns or cities.

Where I live, in Christchurch, NZ, there are numerous crags that can be reached by bike or bus, hell, there’s even one a 10 minute walk from my house (decidedly not world class though!). Wānaka also has some suburban cragging, and Paynes Ford is a short walk from the centre of Tākaka.

All told, Aus/NZ are good places to live or visit if you don’t like long drives to go climbing. 

Sounds like I need to go to Australia or New Zealand!

Eldorado has bike racks (with another big one on the way). Thanks, in part, to donations from the Janette Heung Memorial Foundation and ACE, we'll have a sweet bike repair/pump station pretty soon. So that's cool.

Not Hobo Greg wrote:

You got a thumb don’t you?

I hitched for years in a number of mountain area of Colorado, as well as go out of my way these days to help those that need rides whenever I've got an extra seat. My wife and I try to give back when we can. Last time we picked someone up was a few months back in Durango (I don't live in CO full time, these days), and 4 climbers needed a ride as we were headed back to our camp site from the crag. They all piled in the back of my truck and asked if we could drop them at a grocery store, so we added a stop to get them where they wanted to go. It doesn't happen often, but we had a cooler in the back with cold malty beverages and extra food, so everyone got a beer and snack for the ride back to town, too.

Colorado has always seemed to be hitch friendly to me, and I know one needs to be careful, which is true. Perhaps it'll be us that picks you up - we'll get you where you need to go. It's always an option for a ride, if you have some patience.

El Potrero Chico is quite reasonable to visit without a car. Not in the US, of course, but nearby.

Someone above mentioned Yosemite Valley. This is good beta. Good place to be sans-car. A bike is really convenient to have though.

Squamish is also easy to get by without a car, though again a bike is highly recommended.

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas, if you are staying on the ranch

Alan Rubin wrote:

There is also regular bus service from NYC to New Paltz for the Gunks--again should be reasonably easy to get a ride from Rock and Snow to the cliff--also bikeable.

You're not wrong that this is bikeable, but there are a number of issues which make it probably not a good idea to try unless you're a fairly seasoned cyclist. 1) The road up is fairly sketch--cyclists get hit by cars every few years. The rail trail now does connect and is safer, but that adds both distance and difficulty. 2) Including the hill up, this isn't a beginner bike ride. Given climbing fitness and biking fitness don't overlap very well, I would guess that the average climber will find the bike ride alone to be a serious outing. 3) Doing all this with a pack full of climbing gear exacerbates these issues.

Source: I tried this when I first moved to New Paltz, coming from NYC where I biked for almost 100% of my transportation. I survived my journey but did not have a fun time.

Luckily, hitchhiking from Rock and Snow works great. I did that successfully a bunch of times before I got my truck. The bus from NYC + hitchhiking is a lot, but if you're in New Paltz already, hitchhiking is pretty reasonable.

I haven't climbed there, but there's definitely rock climbing accessible from downtown New Haven (I'm not sure if it's West Rock State Park, which is on MP, or some other rock which might not be legal to climb? Locals can weigh in).

Spokane you can straight up take a city bus. The climbing isnt world class but definitely worth while if you are there.

I bet if you brought beer college towns near crags like new paltz and rumney would be pretty doable.

You can also do Seattle to Little Si quite easily but I don't know where you would stay..

Djurite/Mt Arapiles in Australia is possible. From Melbourne there's a coach service to the nearest large town Horsham, then another local bus can drop you off near the campground, but many people hitch (or, these days, organise lifts on Facebook). Once you're there you can often carpool back in to town for resupply.

The Blue Mountains is very rare in that about half of the crags and a hell of a lot of climbing is accessible from train stations on the main Blue Mountains Line. The guidebook even includes the nearest station and walking times if you are catching the train. Even better, it's on the Sydney commuter public transport network, so service is pretty regular and you can tap on/tap off at the stations with your Opal card or directly with your credit card or phone. For a while there was a $2.50 fare cap on Sundays (ie unlimited train travel for the day for $2.50) which was a total bargain. Unfortunately though, you won't find any legal free camping without a car.

Traditionally a lot of the historical climbing and backcountry hiking, which started post-WW1 and in the Great Depression, was done by catching the train from Sydney, as most climbers and bushwalkers did not have cars. The trail-running test-piece the "Three Peaks" traverse starts from the Katoomba train station at the arrival of the Friday evening commuter train, and must be completed in 48 hours before the last train back to Sydney on Sunday evening, so you can get back for work on Monday.

Down at Nowra, the Bomaderry Creek crags are in theory accessible from the Nowra railway station. This is a country service though, much more of a pain, more expensive with limited services, and rarely done.

To be clear: there's probably nowhere better on earth to be  a climber without a car that Chamonix, France.  I know you prefer US, but the disparity in quality is so huge that it has to be called out.  There is nowhere else on earth with as much easily accessed climbing of such astounding quality.  And of course hopefully you ski, too!