Wagon Caves / Fort Hunter Liggit

Matt and I got off to an early start.  Somehow, I ended up picking him up instead of the earlier plan of him running past my place.  This ended my hopes to get an extra half hour of sleep, up at 5:30am to be at his place in Los Gatos by 6.  Breakfast in some little place downtown and then another 3ish hours of driving south over 17 and down through Salinas. It would only be later, when I got a good look at a map, that I realized just how far south we had really gone.

It turns out we didn't have to pass through the military base, the road has been routed around it.  I had made sure all my current insurance and registration papers were in order in anticipation of having to show them at the base gates, unnecessary now.

The place is beautiful. Classic California rolling hills with coastal oaks.  Outcroppings of sandstone are everywhere.  I am a little relieved that it is not more of a climbing mecca,  to see it overused would be a shame.  I think the time it takes to get to and the limited climbing will keep it safer than some of the closer areas.  Even so, I noticed that some mountain bike enthusiasts, no doubt enjoying some of the rounded bicycle friendly shapes, had left long skid marks along the spine of one major rock formation.

Much of the rock is super soft, to the point that they have weathered in streamlined shapes with no holds to speak of.  Other outcroppings are nice and crisp, good quality rock with decent falls.  We onsighted several taller boulder problems, and made a point of checking in some of the deeper pockets for squirrels or other critters.  Lots of acorns and debris inside some of these holes.  The tops of some of the climbs were crumbly, but caution is all that is required to finish the problems off in good style.

I understand there is a bolting ban in effect and saw evidence of chopped bolts on the main rocks.  After watching the bolting mess at Castle, a little bolting restraint is no problem.  I understand that there is a native american community that has a tie to this area and they are not appreciative of bolts, that is what I have been told anyway.

Still, the reason for visiting this place is not the climbing.  There are better quality areas an equal distance away.  The reason to visit is its beauty and unique landscape.  There is a nice swimmable creek with large boulders surrounding it.  We forded the creek in my little truck to get access to it.  You could walk as well.  In the summer, assuming the creek is running still, it will be magic in the heat.

Yours truly 

Mr. M. Oz

After exploring the area a bit, we headed back to the main rock, where the ranger made a point of scanning my plates.  We headed around to one of the moderate climbs which had all its bolts.  Knocked that off as rain began to come in and we called it a day.  Matt told me there were some other moderate to hard climbs near where we were, but we didn't bother, knowing the drive back, which felt a lot longer than the drive down.

Totally cool area and worthy of a couple days exploration.