Where in the U.S. has the closest access to at least 4 rock types?

Has no one mentioned slc? Granite, quartzite, limestone in lcc, bcc, and AF. And if you're feeling frisky cobble conglomerate in city creek canyon/ dry wall by park city. All very reasonable in a single day.

Alex Fischerwrote:

How has Salt Lake City not been mentioned yet? The granite of LCC and the quartzite of BCC are right in our backyard. LCC also has some limestone in it, altho more/better limestone can be found 30 minutes away in American Fork Canyon. Conglomerate is a little under 2 hours away in Maple Canyon.

There's probably another type of rock closer than 2 hours away tham I'm forgetting about, but those 4 come to mind immediately.

Oops lol you beat me. Conglomerate in dry wall and city creek, and actually some junk sandstone nearby too.

Not super close together but Northern California has:

Granite- castle crags

Limestone - lovers leap near Mt. Shasta City

Volcanic- mt. Lassen

Basalt- loading zone, warner valley and pigeon cliffs, susanville

Alex---Granite--Chapel Ledge in Ashfield and the Ryan Road/Mineral Hills outcrop in Florence, also Bunyan in Monson. Schist--several areas around Russel/Westfield--Mt. Tekoa is the most prominent but is now off-limits, but there are other outcrops in that valley. There are also several other very minor schist outcrops here and there in that part of the region.

slo tawrote:

Santa Fe probably has all that within an hour drive, with the exception of sandstone (closer to 2 hours).

If there was a bridge directly linking SF and Los Alamos, that might be the case, but that won't happen, thank goodness. Flagstaff definitely takes the cake here. 

30-40 minutes to chossy basalt. 30 minutes to poopy sandstone bouldering. 1.25 hours to conglomerate that has been annexed by Boulder and feels more like plastic these days. 1.25 hours to trailhead to some dinky quartzite walls. 1.25 hours to rhyolite. 1.5 hours to trailheads to welded tuff. Trailheads to granite* walls within an hour, but add 1-4 hours of hiking unless you like dodging drunk drivers while you belay.

Drive times and cost of housing and tacos rapidly increasing as tech workers and trustafarians emigrate. Your chance to discover Santa Fe before it was cool passed sometime in the last millennium.

*EDIT: I was using "granite" in a general sense. Most of the coarse-grained felsic rock upslope from SF is granitic gneiss--much less cohesive than a nice Sierra batholith. I see that this differentiation has been made below, and probably for good reason. 

splitclimberwrote:

Not super close together but Northern California has:

Granite- castle crags

Limestone - lovers leap

Volcanic- mt. Lassen

Basalt- loading zone, warner valley and pigeon cliffs, susanville

Excuse me? The leap is definitely granite.

But around kirkwood there is granite, breccia, basaltic andesite, and columnar diabase (Machado postpile).

Alan Rubinwrote:

Alex---Granite--Chapel Ledge in Ashfield and the Ryan Road/Mineral Hills outcrop in Florence, also Bunyan in Monson. Schist--several areas around Russel/Westfield--Mt. Tekoa is the most prominent but is now off-limits, but there are other outcrops in that valley. There are also several other very minor schist outcrops here and there in that part of the region.

Interesting, I didn't realize Chapel Ledge was granite. I've heard of that little crag in Florence, but haven't been there. I assumed all those places were gneiss.

Mr Rogerswrote:

Excuse me? The leap is definitely granite.

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/110085778/lovers-leap-limestone

Alex Fischerwrote:

Interesting, I didn't realize Chapel Ledge was granite. I've heard of that little crag in Florence, but haven't been there. I assumed all those places were gneiss.

It is sometimes hard for us non-geologists to distringuish certain types of gneiss (the types that are basically 'recooked' granite) from granites, but both Chapel and Florence are granite (both worth visiting--Chapel for easy, Florence for short, but mostly hard). Bunyan I'm not totally sure which it is, but most likely granite.

Further away--the recently-opened Hanging Mountain crag is really confusing as it seems to be a mixture of granite and gneiss--with a few dikes of other rocks (possibly basalt) interspersed as well.

Tal Mwrote:

For the Front Range, based out of the Golden area

BoCan or Mill Creek (Granite) > Clear Creek (Gneiss/Schist) > North Table (Basalt) > Morrison (Sandstone). Additionally, the conglomerated sandstone from Eldo climbs and looks pretty different to the Dakota Sandstone of Morrison if you wanted to count that as separate rock, meaning you could get 5 unique climbing experiences in a day fairly easily all within 30 minutes of home - some within 5 or less. There's also the flatirons for sandstone as well which I'd consider unique climbing styles from Morrison and Eldo as well but I haven't done enough mileage to feel good about that claim. And if you take the path listed above, pretty much every climbing area is <15 minutes away from each other in that radius.

You can knockout conglomerated sandstone and quartzite in Eldo, checking off 2 types in one spot.

Misha Sweeneywrote:

Has no one mentioned slc? Granite, quartzite, limestone in lcc, bcc, and AF. And if you're feeling frisky cobble conglomerate in city creek canyon/ dry wall by park city. All very reasonable in a single day.

Parley's Canyon has "nugget sandstone."

Austin Donisanwrote:

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/110085778/lovers-leap-limestone

Welp! I'll be damned, thanks for the education! 

Mr Rogerswrote:

Welp! I'll be damned, thanks for the education! 

There are two crags called Lovers Leap in Northern California. This limestone one as well as the ultra classic granite one located west of Tahoe 

SF Bay Area: 

-Greywacke at Mickey's Beach

-Rhyolite in Berkeley

-Sandstone at Castle Rock or Diablo

-Chert in Glen Park

-"other" volcanic on Mt. Tam

It's all choss but at least there's variety!

San Diego County has at least 4 types of granite:

Woodson Splitter

Eagle Peak Flattop

VOTM Kitty Litter

Corte Coarsegold

Mission Gorge Baby’s Butt

The rare Highland Zero Grit Gray

Rainbow Rock Candy

And Boomer Beach Sandstone

Last, but not least, there is the superb and rarely touched Luiseño Ironstone

Most SD climbers prefer Mesa Rim plastic for the short approach, social scene, sports bras and techno pop

Shaun Johnsonwrote:

Ok lets make it more specific and challenging.

What area could someone possibly climb 4 rock types in the same day. So let's say 30 minute radius.

I found the winner!  ;)

Bill Lawrywrote:

I found the winner!  ;)

Do they have jobs too?

I could climb a pitch on 4 different types of rock, and be home for an early lunch. (St George)

Los Angeles:

1 hr or less -
Stoney Point - Sandstone
Texas Canyon - Conglomerate Sandstone
Punchbowl - Sandstone
Pt-Dume - Metamorphosed Sandstone
Malibu Creek - Limestone-like metamorphosed Sandstone
Tick - Gneiss (granite-like)
San Gabriels (Horse Flats, Pacifico) - Granite (gniess actually)

2 hrs
Fossil Falls - Basalt & various lava
Schoolbook - Tufa
Joshua Tree - two kinds of granite
Tahquitz/Suicide - the purest most beautiful granite anyone could ever climb

We have to go all the way to Bishop and Owens River Gorge for Tuff.  There is chossy stuff closer but no official "areas."

+1 for Salt Lake City and St. George, UT. 4+ types of good rock, great climbs, and various styles of climbing within 30 minutes.