Must visit Crags in CO

Classic MP thread! A fairly simple question complicated into nonsense!

If the road is passable, check out South Platte. You can find great trad cragging and multipitch and there is free camping. 

Creed A wrote:

If the road is passable, check out South Platte. 

Lots of climbing areas in the SPlatte that aren't dependent on road conditions! So many crags..... :)

Shelf Road.  South of Colorado Springs, fun limestone sport climbing, nearby camping.  Basically high desert. Watch out for rattlesnakes.

Eldorado Canyon.  Kind of a must if travelling to CO.  Routes can seem a bit sandbagged until you get used to the climbing and protection, but there are some stellar routes.  Yellow Spur, Rosy, Outer space... the list goes on.  Watch out for Boulder D-bags.  No camping nearby, but an air-b-n-b in Boulder might be worth it.

South Platte or Turkey Rocks.  Generally well protected crack climbing on reddish granite.  We used to find free camping pretty easy around Turkey Perch.  

Easy day trip cragging:  Boulder Canyon or Clear Creek.  Tons of bolt protected and a few great trad lines.  Camping can be found in national forest land (free but generally higher elevation.

That should eat up a week pretty easily!  As you may have gathered from this thread, the general front range attitude can be rather snarky and competitive, but there are tons of great people as well.  The further you hike, the less crowds...  

If it was my first time visiting Colorado for a climbing trip and I knew what I know now, I'd head to Boulder and climb a week or so in Eldo, the flatirons, boulder (dream) canyon, and clear creek. Air bnb in Boulder and done on some amazing food. Check out Arcana and mountain sun. 

Then I would head south and climb around south plattefor a week or so. Turkey rocks first to warm up to the area then cyn pin, wigwam and Devils head. 

Then off to shelf for a few days maybe hit up garden of the gods but only for a day or two. 

Black canyon for a week. Tick the classics. 

Swoop up and climb Escalante and unaweep followed by grand junction. 

Probably strong by now so hit rifle on the way back to Denver.  

Then a couple weeks climbing sweet sweet alpine lines but you're not interested in that. 

Not sure if I missed anything. 

Travis Bieber wrote:

No Alpine climbing. I wouldn't say my requirements are mutually exclusive I was just asking for suggestions on where some of the better climbing is from Denver to Colorado Springs. 

Hmmm..
Well, if this is 'alpine climbing' then enver mind, but I'm gonna toss this one out there.
When it get hot this summer and you are looking for something to do within an hour of Denver, I have a suggestion.

Ra and Halidone, at Empire.

You sound like you are cool on 5.11 since you said up to 5.12.  The routes there are full value (redpoint graded), multi-pitch, interesting and long.  Mark discusses the grades (red-point graded, not on-sight) on the page for 'Touch Gold'.
These were developed by Mark Tarrant and the late Richard Wright.  They did a very nice job.  Attached are some pics Mark took from a distance of the upper pitches of a few of the 4+ pitch routes up there in the 5.11c-12b range, Nearer to Thee and Windows on the World.  These are not the best pictures possible, but they certainly show set and setting!  Click them and zoom in and look at the exposure and such.

On the Halidone, it is even longer.  Link ups on the Halidome, IE: Cat Tracks to Touch Gold or to Priceless are 6-7 pitches long and 5.12.

Richard and Mark put their time into getting this crag developed nicely, but I suppose due to the drive and walk in, the relative difficulty, and the commitment factor, it never got crowded.  It's not a social crag where you can hang with buddies at the base.  YOu just pick a few lines and get after it.
There are a few select pitches that take gear if you seek them out, but they are not hte jewels of the area.  
Do take 20 draws, some of the pitches are long, or can be run together and you might want as many.

Have fun out there.

P4 of Nearer to Thee:

wyoming

Castlewood & North Table.

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Seriously though, there is very little must visit single-pitch crags in the front range. There are good routes here & there, as well as diversity.

I had anarchy wall all to myself yesterday. Sooo crowded. 

Tony B, it was not a diss of your obviously fully informed and well thought out post. 

Your's & the quote below are both  the advice I'd take!  Also; summer temps demand some planning, 

carrying enough water and gear/shelter(?) to breeze through afternoon thunderstorms may require carrying more than just a Crag pack. . . YMMV.

As Tony B's post points out, " Fail to plan, plan to fail".

Don Ferris wrote:

If it was my first time visiting Colorado for a climbing trip and I knew what I know now, I'd head to Boulder and climb a week or so in Eldo, the flatirons, boulder (dream) canyon, and clear creek. Air bnb in Boulder and done on some amazing food. Check out Arcana and mountain sun. 

Then I would head south and climb around south plattefor a week or so. Turkey rocks first to warm up to the area then cyn pin, wigwam and Devils head. 

Then off to shelf for a few days maybe hit up garden of the gods but only for a day or two. 

Black canyon for a week. Tick the classics. 

Swoop up and climb Escalante and unaweep followed by grand junction. 

Probably strong by now so hit rifle on the way back to Denver.  

Then a couple weeks climbing sweet sweet alpine lines but you're not interested in that. 

Not sure if I missed anything. 

I might just Skip the Eldo? Or target the a farther off walls (Rinco? Mickey mouse wall ?) other-wise, it a trip plan.

Edit: isn't the walk to the base of Hallets peak, a black-top paved side-walk?

Michael Schneider wrote:

I might just Skip the Eldo? Or target the a farther off walls (Rinco? Mickey mouse wall ?) other-wise, it a trip plan.

Interesting.
Why skip the rest of Eldo and head to Rincon?  Rincon, foot for foot, is more crowded than most areas of Eldo in winter/spring.  If you really want to try the rock but avoid crowds, just go on a weekday or if you want total solitude, try Sobo, The Veil, Physical Crag, etc... but you should be able to do just about anything BUT the Bastille Crack, Rewritten, Ruper, Long John Wall, Gambit, or Swanson's Arete without much trouble on a weekday.
On another note, MMW is closed until August 1st, BTW, and then it faces South and is an hour long hike in.  On a cool day at the end of Sept it might be climbable, but until then, I wouldn't go there in August.