Green Easter Egg

A short trip downstream from the main Carderock cliffs gets you to Easter Egg Rocks, where there is a small collection of quality routes. Very few people ever climb here, and the base can be brushy (and very sandy), but it is worth it for the solitude and the fun. Even though there is not much climbing activity here nowadays, the rock is not terribly licheny on the routes (definitely some of that, though), and the clean rock tends to be a little stickier than the notoriously well-polished faces at Carderock.

Green Easter Egg is on the face just left of the long overhang (Scoredos' Overhang). In the guidebook, it is listed as 5.2-5.6; the 5.6 seems to be more to the left, with smaller holds and some balancey moves.

From I-495, take Exit 41, just north of the Potomac, heading west on the Clara Barton Parkway. In about a mile, take the exit for Carderock. Go left over an overpass and turn right at the stop sign. Drive to the last parking lot.

Walk past the now-closed restrooms. When you have to decide whether to go left or right on the Billy Goat Trail, go left. Hike past the clifftops on your right (the Hades Heights section of Carderock). In two or three minutes, the trail passes right by another clifftop area. This is the top of Easter Egg Rocks. Just before it is a drainage. To reach the base, go down that drainage and then bear left across rock outcrops (don't go all the way to the river first).

It should take no more than ten minutes to get from your car to the crag. Actually, I have made the trip in under five minutes.

Trees up top for anchors.