General

Rocks State Park is a State Park about 40 min north of Baltimore.   The climbing areas are a short walk from the main parking area – parking fee or MD State Park pass required.

Type of Climbing

There are around 70 routes from 5.4 – 5.12, the majority in the 5.5 – 5.9 range.  Many of the routes can be led on natural gear, and most can be toproped.  The routes are 30 – 100ft in length. The rock is mica shist and mostly solid.  There’s also some bouldering.

Directions and Parking

Drive north on I-95 to Route 24. Take Route 24 north about 10 miles. The road will go from a major highway to a small two lane country road. Route 24 becomes Rocks Rd about a mile after you pass Cherry Hill Rd. Take St. Clair’s Bridge Rd. to the top picnic area: the King and Queen Seat are just a few hundred meters away.

There are several other parking areas – details in the guidebook sources listed below.

Crag Logistics

Most of the routes can be top roped. If leading, a 60m rope and standard rack should be sufficient. Several routes will also take large (> #3) cams.

There are two main areas, King & Queen Seat and Breakaway Wall.  The bottom of both walls can be accessed by scrambling but in damp conditions – or fall leaves – the descent to the bottom of the Breakaway Wall probably warrants an abseil.  

It’s possible to set up an abseil down the Breakaway Wall – some scrambling required to do this. You need medium to large trad gear to set up an anchor and it’s best to have a separate abseil rope. Alternative you can abseil off a tree to the side of the Breakaway Wall or even abseil down the descent scramble.

Breakaway Wall faces south so is hot in the summer.

Guidebooks

The best guidebook is Climb Maryland Vol 1: Eastern MD by Mark Kochte (2022) which has detailed information about the climbing here.

Rocks State Park is listed in Mountainproject.

Rocks State Park is also mentioned in the 2013 Falcon guidebook book Rock Climbing Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland by Eric Horst.