Jailhouse Rock
Jamestown / Sonora (Tuolumne County) · near Jamestown · Gold Country & Central Valley
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- expert
- Grade range
- 5.11c to 5.14d (quality starts ~5.12b)
- Best season
- Winter, late fall & early spring; bakes in summer, seeps after rain
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Nickname
- California's Steep-Basalt Crag
- Climb types
- sport
- Rock type
- Columnar basalt
- Route count
- ~109 routes, almost all hard sport
- Signature routes
- Alcatraz · Fugitive · Jailbait
- Intl tip
- Get the current gate code from the Access Fund website BEFORE you drive out - there's no other way in. It's a hard sport crag (5.12+ to enjoy it), best in winter, and closes part of the cliff for nesting raptors in spring. No dogs, no camping.
The guide
Jailhouse Rock is California's premier steep-basalt sport crag - a compact, brutally overhanging amphitheater of columnar basal…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Jailhouse Rock — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.907, -120.5582