Fearing a New Paltz rainout this past weekend, Tom and I, who had been talking about heading up to the Gunks for a few weeks, decided to switch things up and head to the great state of … Maryland? We’d heard rumors of the appropriately named Rocks State Park from a friend at our climbing gym, but we hadn’t made the 1.5-hour drive down to check it out. With the weather looking nice along the Mason-Dixon Line, we packed up and headed out early Sunday morning.

It took a bit of tooling around the park for us to find the right road to lead us up to the King and Queen Seat, an outcrop that served as a sacred gathering place for Native Americans, which we were prepared to smear liberally with chalk.

We spent the early part of the morning on the Biceps Wall, with Tom leading The Crux, 5.5, on gear. I must not have been providing a nice belay since Tom decided to try and drop a number 6 BD nut on my head from about 20 feet up. It’s a fun route, one of two on the wall that takes gear, with a surprisingly uncomfortable, pumpy crux for a 5.5. We followed that up with by dropping a top rope on Critter Crack a.k.a. Peanut Brittle and the Flake, a 5.5 with some fun laybacking on giant flakes. Though we were warmed up, we opted to skip the three 5.10 through 5.11c routes on the Biceps Wall to check out Rocks’ freestanding pinnacle.

The pinnacle, probably the highlight of climbing at Rocks, is about 50 feet high, the south side of which features the delicious looking Strawberry Jam, a 5.8 hand crack that goes straight up the middle. While eyeing that up and figuring out whether to lead it or take an easier route to set up a top rope, we saw about 30 wasps buzzing in and out of the crack. Slightly disheartened, we figured there was probably a nest in there, and, with my luck, I’d probably send a hand jam right into it.

Instead, Tom tied in and took Rick’s Way, 5.4, which, in reality, is two or three bouldering moves followed by a fourth-class scramble to the pinnacle’s two bolts. I followed Tom to the top, which affords a beautiful view of the park. Rapping down, we decided the best plan of attack was to tackle the north side of the pinnacle, which appeared wasp free. On top rope, we took on First Line, a 5.6 crack with an eerily loose block near the top, and Scared Straight, a 5.9 with some fun, tough moves. Scared Straight was easily the best climb of the day. 

All said and done, we tromped out and hit 95 back to the city, making a quick stop for a chipwich and ice cream sandwich.

Rocks is definitely worth a day trip, especially since we didn’t even hit the crag’s main face, the Breakaway Wall. Apparently, with all the sun it gets, Rocks makes a nice winter crag, too. Nice to know in case Tom and I decide to do another February Freeze Fest.