-
451 Hits
-
74.92% Score
-
5 Votes
Page Type:
|
Mountain/Rock |
|---|---|
Lat/Lon:
|
36.14703°N / 115.42732°W |
Activities:
|
Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing |
Season:
|
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter |
Elevation:
|
3980 ft / 1213 m |
|
Overview
In the spring of 2022, I took a week off work to go to Vegas to visit my parents. My father was in poor health and in the hospital, and my mother had urged me to come out and see him in case I wouldn't get another chance to see him alive. So I did.
As it turned out, he got through that crisis, but another came in the summer, and it took him.
While visiting, I naturally couldn't help but get some climbing in at my favorite non-alpine climbing location. Since I had no partner and might have had to be on short notice to get to the hospital, I was looking for single-pitch crags with short approaches and fairly easy grades.
Child's Play Wall, where the route names evoke children's games and the grades range from 5.5 to 5.8, was perfect. Good options for ground anchors for LRS didn't exist, but I was able to LRS the left-most route, using the first 2 bolts as anchors, and then move the rope from anchor to anchor to TRS the rest of the routes.
Takeaway: The vast majority of sport climbers at the First Pullout seem to be headed for the Hamlet or Panty Wall; Child's Play Wall has fewer routes and less variety but is closer to the parking lot and in the opposite direction of those popular walls.
Mountain Project page for Child's Play Wall-- Less written info overall but good locater photos
Getting There
From the entrance station, drive just over a mile on the one-way Scenic Loop and turn off into the large parking area.
Work your way down and right into the wash below. Scramble up onto a ramp system-- you'll be just below a bolted area called Circus Wall and keep following the path of least resistance southward until you can cut left and up into a gully that reaches the base of the crag.
Approach time your first time might be 15 minutes. Once you know the way, it'll be 5-10.
The images below, linked from Mountain Project, should help with locating the crag.
Routes
The crag has 7 established routes. All but the right-most route are sport routes, and all have bolted anchors.
- Capture the Flag, 5.7
- Tag You're It, 5.8
- Hide and Seek, 5.7
- Monkey in the Middle, 5.7
- Simon Says, 5.6
- Rounders, 5.6
- The Wedgie, 5.5
These routes are 40-50' each; have at least a 40 and maybe a 50 to be safe.
|
|
Red Tape
Unfortunately and also unsurprisingly given the explosion in visitation at RR over the past several years, there is so much red tape that I can't list it all and can't keep up with it since it keeps changing.
The daily fees keep going up. During certain periods of the year, you need a reservation to get in on the Scenic Loop. You can't go in early before the gates open, but you'll get ticketed and fined if you're not out by closing time. Late-exit permits are available, but they don't cover you overnight.
For accurate current information, it's best to check the RRCNCA website.
When to Climb
Spring, fall, and winter are best, but the approach is short enough that climbing early on a summer morning is reasonable. Because the wall faces south and has cliffs opposite to it, it probably gets late-afternoon shade in the summer, but I can't verify that from personal experience.
Camping
There's a Forest Service campground close to the entrance that in busy seasons is notoriously difficult to get a site at, and it's closed in the summer. There are very few other legal public camping options in the area.