Woodfords Canyon
Woodfords / Markleeville, Hwy 88/89 (Alpine County) · near Woodfords / Markleeville · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- all-levels
- Grade range
- 5.8–5.12d (+ ~27 boulder problems)
- Best season
- Nearly year-round — south-facing walls in winter, shaded walls in summer heat
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit or fee (Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest). About 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- trad · sport · bouldering · multi-pitch · top-rope
- Rock type
- Granite — a crack-climbing canyon and noted High-Sierra training ground
- Route count
- ~260 routes
- Signature routes
- The Perfect Lie Back (5.8) · Hillside Strangler (5.11b/c) · Lightning Dream (5.12d)
- Intl tip
- A rare near-year-round Sierra crag 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe — chase the aspect (south-facing walls when cold, shaded walls when hot) and you can climb almost any month.
The guide
A genuinely four-season granite canyon just south of Tahoe, Woodfords holds about 260 routes across every discipline — from a b…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Woodfords Canyon — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.7653, -119.8463