The Ultimate Guide to Rock Climbing in Bishop, CA for First-Timers

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What amazed me about rock climbing in Bishop, CA was the sheer amount of climbing. And I don’t mean just one area – there are 5 main crags right by Bishop:

• The Buttermilk Boulders
• The Happy and Sad Boulders
• The Druid Stones
• Owen’s River Gorge
• Pine Creek Canyon

Each one of them is a world-class crag by itself!

During my month in Bishop, I managed to visit 4 of those 5 crags. Since it was my first time in the area, I wanted to get to know and climb as much as I could. Because of that, the climbing trip involved less projecting and a LOT more getting to know the place.

After that month, I’ve never climbed on such a variety of rock in so little time – all so close to each other.

And let’s not talk about the views… actually, that’s ALL I want to talk about. Bishop, California is the most beautiful place where I have ever rock climbed.

I know mountain project exists and is all a rock climber needs, but here’s my guide to rock climbing in Bishop, CA as a first-timer. The world needs personal touches nowadays, and here’s my attempt at just that.

What Makes Bishop Special?

It’s a combination of things – the mountains, the variety of rock and its location.

Bishop is a part of the Mojave Desert, which means it rarely rains, it’s dry and you get sun most days. Because of that, the climbing season in Bishop is during the fall, winter and spring.

The season is that long because of the different crags’ elevations. The Happy & Sad Boulders are at 4,400 feet above sea level, while the Buttermilks are at 6,400.

The rock is mostly granite, although different types of granite, and volcanic tuff. That makes for different naturally occurring holds and styles. Funny enough, it was hard for me to learn the styles of any one crag during my month in Bishop because I was hopping around between them so much.

And then there’s the views – my favorite part.

Bishop is located right next to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. This range is home to the tallest mountain in the lower-48. And on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, on Bishop’s side, the mountains have no foothills. That means they rise straight up to their peaks in sheer cliffs. Its IMPRESSIVE!

The Buttermilks are right up next to the mountains, so the views there are best. But you can pretty much see the mountains at any and all crags except Owens River Gorge.

Rock Climbing in Bishop, CA

Rock Climbing in Bishop, CA – Map!

This map has all the parking lots for the different crags in Bishop and the most convenient campgrounds. Tap the icon on the top left to see what each pin is!

1. The Buttermilk Boulders

These gigantic boulders are made of quartz monzonite, a really coarse granite. It really eats up your skin. But, oddly enough, it also has super polished holds. It’s a really interesting combination I had never experienced.

Apart from the spectacular quality of the rock, this place is known for having tall boulders. The first ones you see as you drive up are the legendary Grandpa and Grandma Peabody Boulders. They’re about 45 feet tall.

And though those are some of the tallest, most boulders in the Buttermilks are taller than your average boulder.

To cap it all off, you have an unobstructed view of some of the most impressive mountains you’ll ever see. The Buttermilks is the most beautiful place I’ve ever climbed.

Because of how unique and beautiful is, try to spend most of your time here if it’s your first time rock climbing in Bishop, CA. You’ll love it if you like crimps and have a strong mental game.

Here are some of the climbs I tried and recommend:

• Inner Sanctum V1: I warmed up on this a lot… it’s just fun to play around on. Try doing it by going through the hole behind the boulder for giggles.
• Green Wall Essential V2: a technical, crimpy boulder that was a lot of fun.
• Cave Problem V4: super fun, and a way to climb on the Grandpa Peabody Boulder without topping it out!
• Iron Man Traverse V5: a fun low-ball traverse that gets thinner as you climb, with a slopey finish.
• High Plains Drifter V7: a steep, crimpy boulder with powerful moves. It’s tall, so I didn’t try all of it, but the moves up to the crux are super fun.

How to get to the Buttermilk Boulders

You can just put “Buttermilk Boulders” into your GPS and it’ll get you there.

Only 1 thing! Make sure your GPS makes you go right on Buttermilk Road. The GPS might try to take you through Starlite Drive, but there’s a closed gate there Google Maps doesn’t always know about. Once you’re on Buttermilk Road, just stay on it until you see the boulders!

2. The Happy and Sad Boulders

The Happy & Sad Boulders aren’t as well-known as the Buttermilk Boulders. But they were my favorite place for bouldering in Bishop.

Though there are still a lot of highballs, it just doesn’t compare to the Buttermilks. It’s a lot more accessible for people without a strong mental game, like me. And while the Buttermilks require strong fingers and technique, the style at the Happy and Sad Boulders is more powerful.

Plus, the rock is a LOT easier on your skin. We noticed a lot of people would climb at the Happies the day after climbing at the Buttermilks in order not to take a rest day.

The Happy and Sad Boulders have two different parking lots because they’re two different small canyons, one beside the other. The Happy Boulders have an amazing concentration of boulders, while the Sad Boulders don’t have quite as many (still 230+).

Sadly (pun intended), I didn’t make it to the Sad Boulders because I got too into trying to send some boulders in the Happies. Here are my favorites at the Happy Boulders:

• Heavenly Path V1: the only PG13 climb I’ve ever done. Easy and then extremely thin, but just fine if you’re confident.
• Weekender V4: a really fun traverse in a steep cave. The crux isn’t too high, and then the boulder ends high, but on jugs. Super pumpy!
• Ketron Classic V4: this was my favorite because it was my style – reachy and slopey. It’s amazing!
• The Flying Zebra V4: this boulder was super fun, and very beta intensive. It involves some crazy heel hooking and felt hard!
• Hulk V6: the reason I didn’t make it to the Sad Boulders. It’s a really powerful boulder on an overhang involving some crazy beta that I honestly didn’t figure out. So fun though!

How to Get to the Happy and Sad Boulders

The directions on Mountain Project will get you there. Just make sure you don’t park above the boulders for the Happy Boulders. You’d have to walk through private property. You need to be walking UP to the boulders.

Where you park doesn’t really matter at the Sad Boulders. The parking lot above the boulders fills up quickly, though. I also did hear there’s some great free dispersed camping on the road above the boulders.

3. Owen’s River Gorge

This is mecca for a sport climber. There are over 1,000 routes in this narrow but super tall gorge. It’s impressive to say the least, and being there just makes you want to climb.

The rock here is Volcanic Tuff, and the climbing is mostly vertical with some steep stuff. It also has extremely long climbs of up to 165 feet.

Other than the quality of the climbing, which is world-class, just being in the gorge was fun. It’s a striking place, with crazy textures on the walls. And the sound of the water surrounding you at all times is so relaxing.

Hiking into the gorge is something else too! These are the steepest approaches I’ve ever been on. Funny enough, going down was harder than hiking up. It’s so involved going up that the time passes quickly.

These were my favorite climbs in Owen’s River Gorge:

• Machine Gun Jumblies 10a: a super fun sport climb that could be a trad climb. You do a lot of lay-backing and it’s just fun the whole way!
• Yellow Peril 10c: a long, easy climb up to a harder dihedral way up high.
• Gorgeous 10b: the name says it all! It’s an amazing climb on an arete. I’m not very used to aretes, so I was scared and over-gripping, but it was awesome. The three 11b’s to the right of it are great too.
• O.R.G.asm 11a: this was by far my favorite sport climb at Owen’s River Gorge. I don’t climb cracks often because I don’t trad climb, so this bolted crack was new for me and I LOVED it. Not too hard, but quite technical.

How to get to Owen’s River Gorge

This one’s important! Let me save you 20 minutes.

Especially for climbing at the Upper Gorge, Google Maps will take you the quick way. You’ll take Highway 395 north to approach Gorge Road from above. Great idea, right? Wrong.

There’s a closed gate right where you turn off of Highway 395, so don’t go this way!

Make sure you take Gorge Road CONN off Highway 395 to get to Gorge Road. From there turn left (north) and all the parking for the different parts of the crag will be on the right.

4. Pine Creek Canyon

I only climbed here one day, my last day in Bishop, and it was spectacular.

The climbing at Pine Creek Canyon is behind the giant mountain that you see from the Buttermilk Boulders. I had no idea you could get there so easily, so I was pleasantly surprised.

The canyon is all granite, but it’s not as coarse as the granite of the Buttermilk Boulders. Actually, it felt very slick… and it wasn’t a hot day. I don’t have much experience with granite, so I can’t explain that at all.

This crag has a lot of sport and trad climbing.

We did two sport climbs that day, but the best one was Flame Thrower 11c. It has a first set of anchors before a roof, and it’s a 5.10 until there. Then you have to pull the roof, which is 3 bolts of thoughtful climbing, into a vertical finish. You can climb it with a 70-meter rope, and it was a great climb!

Outside of the climbing, it’s just gorgeous in Pine Creek Canyon! You feel like you’re in the alpine, since you’re in between giant snowy mountains.

How to Get to Pine Creek Canyon

Put Scheelite Canyon Trailhead into your GPS and head over there!

Pine Creek Road branches off Highway 395 to the left for a few miles and it takes you behind the mountain to a parking lot. From there, you’ll see the canyon where all the climbing is. Hike towards it on the Scheelite Canyon Trail and you’ll see routes as soon as you enter the canyon!

5. The Druid Stones

The Druid Stones are a lot like the Buttermilk Boulders in terms of the rock quality. They’re just in another location.

They also don’t have as many climbs as the Buttermilks. And while the Buttermilks has boulders right next to the road, hiking to the Druid Stones takes 25-45 minutes.

That’s why I didn’t end up going.

But it’s a great option if you get tired of all the other areas or have climbed everything (impossible)!

You also get some incredible views of the Eastern Sierras at the Druid Stones.

Bishop Rock Climbing Guidebooks

You could fill a library with all the guidebooks there are for climbing in the Bishop area! Here’s a list of all the guidebooks for the Bishop area.

To sum it up, there’s an Owen’s River Gorge guidebook and a Bishop Bouldering guidebook that covers all the bouldering in this blog and more. Then there’s the Bishop Area Rock Climbs guidebook that also includes climbs all the way down in Alabama Hills and up in Pine Creek Canyon.

Camping in Bishop

The camping situation is pretty convenient for all the rock climbing in Bishop, CA.

For the Buttermilk Boulders and Druid Stones areas, you can stay right in the Buttermilks parking lot, which has lots of sites. I stayed there because it was close to the bathrooms.

But the area has several other camping spots. Most people sleep in sites you get to by continuing straight after the cattle guard that’s right before the Buttermilks parking lot.

For all the other crags, the best place to sleep is the Pleasant Valley Pit Campground. It has bathrooms in the middle of the campground for all to use and picnic tables at each site. That’s it. It costs $5 a night per site, so it’s very affordable, and is first-come first-served.

Hotels/Hostels in Bishop

The cheapest place to stay in Bishop is the Hostel California.

I went there one day to take a shower, which costs $5 by the way, and it looked dark and grungy. However, photos online look great (it’s an awesome old house) and people’s reviews are extremely positive.

So, I’ll take their word for it, since I just showered there. Bunks cost $33 and a private room costs $94, although it changes depending on what website you look at.

Other than that, Bishop doesn’t have the greatest hotels.

What is does have is awesome vacation rentals. I stayed in several homes across the Eastern Sierras while doing Trusted HouseSitters, and those Californians have some nice houses!

I seriously recommend Trusted HouseSitters for free stays in gorgeous houses. You have to take care of pets… but hey, it’s been SO worth it. I went for the Premium plan for their liability plan, free cancellations and complementary airport lounge passes. I’m writing this as I sit in a $2.5 million home in Bend, Oregon!

Restaurants I Recommend in Bishop

I didn’t eat out much while rock climbing in Bishop, CA,  but I LOVED the restaurants I did try. The best one was Aaron Schat’s Roadhouse. The burgers were huge and juicy, and the side was a gigantic mound of beer-batter fries.

It’s very likely my 3 weeks of camping food made it taste better, but my goodness!

I tried the Inyo Mouth Burger because it has pastrami in it, and it did not disappoint.

Other than that, try Erick Schat’s Bakery (not a tourist trap, despite what people may say), Holy Smoke Texas Style BBQ, Great Basin Bakery, and Indiego Tasting House.

Working as a Digital Nomad in Bishop

I was working full time while I was rock climbing in Bishop, CA, and it was hard until I figured out the beta.

The library in Bishop isn’t very open to outsiders, which is sad. All the libraries I’ve been to around the US while SUV camping and traveling all over have been amazing. This one only has one power strip (and you can only use it for 30 minutes), you have to ask for the Wi-Fi and it has a time limit, and the staff is… interesting. Still, I worked here many long hours, so you can make it work.

But the best place to work remotely in Bishop is Black Sheep Coffee Roasters. Not only do they make incredible coffee, they let bunches of climbers work there… both at their tables and behind the bar, actually.

Other than that, I also worked at the city park when I had enough battery. Signal is great there and they have lots of picnic tables, some of which are covered.

Other Things to Do Around Bishop

• Visit the Alabama Hills. You can also rock climb here. There are some really cool sport climbs, like the Sharks Fin, but most of it is bouldering. It looks a lot like the Buttermilks, actually.
• Do the Eastern Sierras road trip along the Eastern Sierras scenic byway. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. From Death Valley to Lake Tahoe, you get deserts, mountains, boulder fields, sand dunes, pine trees, ski towns, lakes… it’s one of the best road trips in the USA!
• Go to Keough’s Hot Springs after a day of climbing or for a rest day. There are also natural (and free) hot springs you can try to find, but they aren’t widely advertised so that they don’t get ruined by crowds. Try to befriend a local who will take you!

Final Thoughts on Rock Climbing in Bishop, CA

I’m already looking forward to going back to climb in Bishop. Bouldering at the Buttermilks was a true test of my mental capabilities. And everywhere else was just plain fun.

But I have to say, I enjoyed nature even more than the climbing. Of course, rock climbing in such a beautiful place is the cherry on top. However, what I’m going to remember is how gorgeous and impressive the rock climbing in Bishop, CA is.

I hope this Bishop rock climbing guide was useful. If you have any questions about your climbing trip to Bishop, feel free to comment below and I’ll be sure to answer!