Rock Climbing at Smith Rocks, Oregon

My daughter attended two seasons of rock climbing camp when she was 16 and 17  years old at Smith Rocks through Mt. Hood Summer Ski Camps.  I flew up at the end of her camp do to some climbing with her and then take her home.  As an older trad climber I hadn’t put Smith Rocks high on my list of places to go since it has a reputation for hard sport climbs, but I found it was a lot of fun.  What isn’t to like about well-bolted straight up climbs with nice handholds (well, the climbs I did had nice handholds….).

I was surprised to discover that Smith Rocks is only 10 miles from Redmond airport – you can actually see Smith from the air as you approach.  You could conceivably ride a bike from airport, although with climbing gear that doesn’t sound like fun.  There are two FBOs and they both have rental cars on site, so I rented a car.  Plus, I like the town of Bend so after climbing we drove to Bend to walk the streets and pick a place for dinner.