Real Hidden Valley
Joshua Tree National Park · near Joshua Tree · California Desert
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- all-levels
- Grade range
- 5.6-5.13a
- Best season
- October-April (summer dangerously hot)
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Joshua Tree NP entrance fee (~$30/vehicle, 7 days); no climbing permit required for day climbing. Watch for seasonal raptor closures (typically Feb-June) on some formations - check the NPS Joshua Tree climbing page.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- trad · sport · bouldering · top-rope
- Rock type
- Quartz monzonite
- Route count
- ~347 routes
- Signature routes
- Sail Away · Illusion Dweller · Leave It to Beaver
- Intl tip
- The best concentration of quality moderate-to-hard trad cracks in the park, on an easy loop from the Hidden Valley parking. Sail Away (5.8) and Illusion Dweller (5.10b) are must-dos. Crack skills essential; fall-spring only.
The guide
Real Hidden Valley is Joshua Tree's crown jewel of moderate-to-hard trad - a roughly one-mile nature-trail loop just south of t…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Real Hidden Valley — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.0145, -116.1713