Bad Beta

This past weekend, another local and I ventured out to Dinosaur Valley State Park and Big Rocks Park in Glen Rose to search for potential climbing. Despite some very promising photos, the trip was mostly a bust. While there are a few boulders that offer some problems, there is nothing worth traveling any distance for. If you’re in the area and you have a pair of shoes, sure knock yourself out, but otherwise look for your climbing fix elsewhere.

The only worthwhile stuff we found was at Dinosaur Valley, found on or around the Blue Trail. Most of it was surrounded by crumbly choss.

This boulder, which was featured in our last post about Glen Rose, ended up being very tall though this picture doesn’t show it. It has a couple possible routes, all of which would entail some cleaning and would ultimately end up very difficult. The tip of the boulder is very far off the ground, but with a very chossy lower section.

New Areas and State Land

Its no secret that the state doesn’t exactly look favorably upon bolting any routes on public land. However, setting up a top rope or bouldering aren’t too big a deal as long as you use discretion and act responsibly.

We’ve been checking out parks in the vicinity and have run across a few places with obvious potential. One such place is Big Rocks Park, a city park in Glen Rose with what could be decent bouldering right on the Paluxy River.

http://flickr.com/photos/foneman30/2538722806/ (This flickr user has chosen not to allow embedded pics, so click the link.)

Another is Dinosaur Valley State Park, the park made famous for the dinosaur footprints embedded in the limestone riverbed.

The limestone in these parks is the same that made The Burn famous back in the day, and there’s gotta be more in the area. We’re hoping to do an exploratory trip in the next few weeks and we’ll let you know what we find. Feel free to beat us to the punch.