Goat Rock (Castle Rock SP)
Castle Rock State Park, Santa Cruz Mtns · near Saratoga / Los Gatos · SF Bay Area
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- all-levels
- Grade range
- 5.4–5.12a
- Best season
- Fall–spring · Shaded forest, summer OK
Permits and booking
- Permit
- California State Parks — ~$10 day-use parking at the main Castle Rock lot (free roadside on Skyline/Hwy 35). Trails close at sunset (rangers ticket after dark). ~1.3–1.5 mi hike from the main lot via the Saratoga Gap Trail.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- top-rope · trad · sport · bouldering
- Rock type
- Tafoni sandstone — pockets, huecos, caves, overhangs
- Route count
- ~9 named routes plus base boulders
- Signature routes
- The Great Roof (5.10b) · Swiss Cheese (5.4) · Dragon's Breath (5.11c/d)
- First timer note
- Bring long slings/static to rig top-rope anchors off trees and the summit — it's not a clip-and-go sport crag.
- Intl tip
- Bring long slings and static line to rig top-rope anchors off trees and the summit — it's not a clip-and-go sport crag. Beat the sunset trail closure.
The guide
The single biggest formation in Castle Rock State Park — a 110-foot Tafoni-sandstone wall of pockets, roofs and cave features —…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Goat Rock (Castle Rock SP) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.2282, -122.1079