Me and 1 or 2 or 3 friends are going on a road trip around the US this summer. We mainly sport climb or boulder (to poor for trad). The trip will be 4 to 6 weeks long and we plan on going from Maryland (home) to Cali and back. I was wondering what the best and most worth while sport climbing and bouldering areas would be to stop at for a couple days each. So far some places I can think of would be Red river gorge, KY Rifle, CO Vantage, WA Bishop, CA Yosemite, CA J-Tree, CA Hueco Tanks, TX Horse Pens 40, AL Chattanooga, TN ?maybe? I haven't been to any of these places but have heard good things. If anyone has any input about some really epic crags or if some of the places listed above would not be good for sport climbing please post your opinions. Thanks for the input.
Vantage sucks. Definitely not worth a cross country trip....I won't drive 2 hours to get there. It's a sketchy chosspile. If you're going to be in that area stop by Leavenworth. Really rad bouldering. There's a ton of other sport and bouldering in Washington so look around. Squamish is also really close. Skaha, BC has really good sport climbing as well. Bishop and Hueco will be ridiculously hot in the summer. Might want to think about that.
Red Rocks in Nevade might be mostly known for it's trad climbing but there really is some nice sports climbing there. And for bouldering you have Kraft Mountain (outside the Red Rocks loop road) and a couple at the Red Springs picnic area. I think it would be worth a visit.
Some friends and i did the same two summers ago. Chattanooga to Squamish and we just stayed there for 6 weeks. You should consider that... it gives you enough time to project many things and get to know all the rad people from all over that hit the squish in the summer. I'm from chattanooga and if you want to boulder don't head south at all man. It gets way humid and nasty hot down here in the summer.
If you're looking for good sport climbing : The Red is amazing. Rifle is amazing. If youre already in CO, stop by Shelf Road first - 1000+ routes with great concentration. Also check out Maple Canyon UT. That place is unreal. ( as of now I don't think there are any guide books in print but trust me it is worth the research ) Joe's Valley UT has insane bouldering (I don't even like bouldering that much and I had fun there) with out the fee's or crowds of Hueco, and maybe a little less heat. You could hit that on the way to/ from Red Rocks NVMy 2 cents.....and then some
Bouldering Sport Climbing Summer Road Trip USA!