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8063 Hits
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85.87% Score
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21 Votes
Page Type:
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Mountain/Rock |
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Lat/Lon:
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34.00016°N / 116.14703°W |
County:
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Riverside |
Activities:
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Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing, Toprope |
Season:
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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter |
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Elevation:
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4300 ft / 1311 m |
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Overview
West Wall of Hall of Horrors is a rock formation inJoshua Tree National Park, California. The focus of this page is the east face of the west wall.
Generally, the Hall of Horrors is reminiscent of the extremely popular Echo Rock area, but not quite as big or convoluted. Of the four separate rock formations, the west wall offers a large variety of face routes. Hall of Horrors, West Wall, West Face, also known as "Buckets to Burbank wall" offers several easy to moderate face routes. The east face of the west wall, however, is quite different in character offering a multitude of steep and difficult face routes.
You will find a number of routes in the 5.11 range on this face. The east face is actually southeast facing and great for early fall to mid spring climbing. The holds are very small and foot traffic quite sparse. I have never seen a great deal of chalk marks on this face.
The east face of the west wall at Hall of Horrors is generally short in height and bolted. Typical to Joshua Tree face routes, don't expect to find a bolt every four or five feet. These routes are more sporty and sport. There is one easy route in the middle of the face. This is known as Jessica's Crack, rated 5.6 established in the mid 1970s where as the more difficult bolted face routes began to appear in the past twenty five years.
Select Routes
The east face of the west wall at Hall of Horrors is generally short in height and bolted. Typical to Joshua Tree face routes, don't expect to find a bolt every four or five feet. These routes are more sporty than sport. There is one easy route in the middle of the face. This is known as Jessica's Crack, rated 5.6 established in the mid 1970s where as the more difficult bolted face routes began to appear in the past twenty five years.
Jessica's Crack provides an easy access to the top of the formation where you can find a number of double bolt anchors. These anchors provide a good way to top rope some of the more difficult routes on either side of Jessica's Crack. For those looking for face routes reaching the extremes, they can try Avant Chain, rated 12a. For a more moderate, still pretty challenging face route, try Read My Flips, rated 11a.
On the right side and somewhat separated from the rest, you can find a rather convoluted route which requires gear placement as well as bolts to reach the top. This is Read My Lips, rated 11a, and it weaves around a few overhangs to reach the bolt protected upper face and the two-bolt anchor on the top.
List of the select routes
Routes of Bankrupt Rock | |
| A | Avant Chain, 12a, bolted face, anchor |
| B | Jessica's Crack, 5.6, Standard Rack, wide pro. |
| C | Read My Flips, 11a, bolts, anchor |
| D | Read My Lips, 11a, bolts for the upper face, Standard Rack |
| E | Low angle down climb |
How To Get There
From the western entrance to Joshua Tree National Park drive on Park Boulevard, formerly known as Quail Springs Road, for about nine miles to a major rock formation called Intersection Rock. Intersection Rock is a major landmark on the north side of Quail Springs Road with ample parking for visitors and climbers alike. This rock, true to its name, sit at the cross roads to “Hidden Valley Campground”, Barker Dam Road and the road to “Day use and picnic” area. Continue driving past Intersection rock to Ryan Campground clearly marked.
Hall of Horrors is a grouping of rock formations approximately one mile northwest of the Ryan Campground turn off on Park Boulevard. Use the same parking as for Saddle Rocks. There are ample parking, bathrooms and marked trails leading to different formations. Looking in the westerly direction from the parking lot you will see several rock formations. This area is known as Hall of Horrors. To reach the east face of the west wall you can take the trail that goes around these formations from the left or from the right. I found the trail that goes around from the right much more straight forward. Walk past the middle formation, the longest formation in Hall of Horrors area, and go left into a level valley it makes with the west wall. Approaching from the north, right, the east face of the west wall will be to your right.
Note: You will come across a sign showing the way to "Exorcist, 10a". Jessica's Crack is across from this famous route.
Camping, Noise Considerations, Environmental Concerns, Fees & Food
Typical Joshua Tree landscape
Desert Flowers
Please tread lightly. The Access Fund has gone to great lengths posting trail marker for approaches to many of the more popular crags. Do your best to stay on these trails, and where you are forced to use a different path, choose the ones that rain can mend in time. Drainages make for good trails where there are no established trails.
Avoid stepping on native and fragile plants, and do not feed the coyotes. Coyotes are very much used to people and often hang around picnic areas and camp grounds in hopes of getting a hand out. It’s better to let them live their natural life.
Camping
Joshua Tree Camping
Noise considerations
When you are camping with friends and sitting around the fire, it is easy to forget that there are other people trying to sleep in the nearby campsites. It is important to put yourself in their shoes. Keep the noise and music to a minimum and certainly not too much past 10 p.m. Your neighbors will smile at you in the morning instead of giving you dirty looks.
Fees and Food
