Rock Climbing California

California holds more concentrated climbing excellence than anywhere else in North America, across every style the sport has. Yosemite Valley is the birthplace of big-wall climbing, and El Capitan's 3,000 feet of granite is still the standard the world measures itself against; Tuolumne Meadows adds high-country domes and knobby runout slab. Joshua Tree's desert monzogranite holds more than 8,000 routes across Hidden Valley, Intersection Rock, Indian Cove and the Wonderland of Rocks. Bishop and the Eastern Sierra bring the Buttermilks, the Happy and Sad Boulders, Owens River Gorge sport climbing, and alpine granite on Temple Crag and Whitney's East Face. Add Tahquitz, where American free climbing and the Yosemite Decimal System were born, plus Lover's Leap, Donner Summit, Pinnacles, Mount Woodson and LA's volcanic backyard crags.