Our nation’s capital seems like an unlikely climbing destination when you think of monuments, museums and Air Force One. However, the best kept secret here in metro D.C. area is the 20 minute accessibility to all the mostly top rope routes you could climb in a week
On either sides of the famous Potomac river is Great Falls National Park, which spans Virginia and Maryland. The park collects a modest fee and some frequent visitors purchase season or yearly passes. On the Maryland side a few miles down stream is another crag known as Carderock. This popular crag has been formally climbed since the early forties. Abundance of scenery, vegetation, and apparent seclusion in a climbing and kayaking novelty park, offers an instant get-a-way from home without really leaving.
Further out, a number of crags can be found in as little as 45 minutes (Sugar Loaf Mountain) to 3.5 hours (Seneca Rocks West Virginia). For the big “local” crags we have the New River Gorge and the Gunks in the 4.5-6 hour radius.
This section of the website has some of our favorite ‘local’ climbing destinations listed by state. The areas list are not intended to provide extensive beta for the area if other beta can be easily found in other sources but rather to let folks know whats around.