City of Rocks and Castle Rock State Park, 2025 Edition

The City of Rocks and Castle Rocks State Park is your essential companion for the amazing granite climbing in the high desert of southern Idaho, one of the most popular summer rock-climbing areas in the Rocky Mountain West. Other landmarks have been christened “City of Rocks,” but to climbers this one is THE City. It’s been called America’s premiere granite sport-climbing area and just as often praised for its unique trad climbing.

With more than 1000 routes to choose from, you can crimp overhanging patina, grunt up an offwidth, cruise a multi-pitch 5.8, or summit a dramatic spire, all within a short walk of your campsite. Nearby you’ll find historic inscriptions, hikes, mountain biking, and the funky Western town of Almo to keep you supplied and entertained on rest days.

Also included here is the sweet climbing at nearby Castle Rocks State Park. With a different, quieter vibe than the roadside crags in the City, Castle Rocks is a worthy destination in itself, with over 300 routes up to three pitches long, featuring many moderate climbs with a more modern, novice-friendly equipping style.

New for this edition are dozens of close-up photos of base areas at popular crags, plus all-new beta for exploratory backcountry areas in the City, Graham Creek, and northern Castle Rock. The access, beta, and maps have all been updated and there are new action photos to inspire your next trip to the City. This new edition uses flexi-bind binding to ensure that your book will last for many years of hard use.

• Author: Dave Bingham
• Publisher: Wolverine Publishing
• Publication Year: 2025
• Edition: 2nd
• Number of Pages: 332 color

Areas Included

• City of Rocks
• Castle Rocks State Park

About the Author

Born on Long Island, NY, Dave Bingham spent his childhood in the Northeast, learning to ski and climb in his early teens before moving out West in the 1970s. He spent summers in Yosemite and winters near Sun Valley, Idaho, guiding rock and teaching cross-country skiing and soon making his permanent home in the Sun Valley area.

Dave lives in Hailey with his wife Lisa, where he runs a log-home chinking business. He still drags out his college-age-and-younger children Tara, Cameron, Jack, and Kate on a variety of mountain adventures.

Dave’s curriculum vitae in adventure sports is impressive: a lifelong athlete and competitor, he has won many Nordic ski and running races in Idaho and has placed as high as 3rd in the famous Pikes Peak Marathon in 1980.

In 1988 and 1990 he won the notorious NBC Survival of the Fittest contest, an old-school, now-defunct version of today’s American Ninja Warrior, held outside in much more dangerous terrain. Dave went on to enter the even more grueling BBC Arctic Survival competition, winning in 1990 and 1992.

Dave also set the speed record for ascending all nine of Idaho’s peaks over 12,000 feet in 38 hours, besting the previous record by two days.

On the rock-climbing front, Dave is a longtime and prolific new-router, with over 200 first ascents up to 5.13, spread over more than 30 years, in the City of Rocks alone. Though an early adopter of the sport-climbing ethic in the mid-1980s, Dave is a true all-arounder, with many trad ascents in the City, the Elephant’s Perch in the Sawtooths, and farther afield. Though still putting up new routes, Dave is now more of a mentor on the Idaho climbing scene.

Dave has been chronicling the climbing at City of Rocks since the 1980s, amounting to nine editions so far. He is also the author of Idaho Underground, an eclectic guide to southern Idaho crags and boulders.