Ortega Falls Rock Climbing After Work In Orange County

Most people react with disbelief when you say there's a place to go outdoor rock climbing in Orange County. Outside of a few bouldering areas most of places we climb are too far away for an after work climbing session but there is the small area off Ortega Highway known as Ortega Falls which has a few top rope / trad routes for those willing to brave the canyon traffic.

We planned this for a weeknight since I seem to have filled up all the weekends with out of town trips through at least October. Heat was a concern (especially with the record heat we've been seeing lately) but the alcove where the climbs are located does get shade relatively early and if you're lucky you get a bit of a breeze up top.


The parking area is less than a mile south of where the main divide truck trail crosses Ortega and it's hard to miss.  There's plenty of parking though you might have to take some care in selecting a spot if your vehicle is low clearance.


Head down into the side of the canyon you'll find a steep loose trail that branches all over. Decent shoes are strongly recommended. On your way down you'll see some rocks off to the right and that's what you want to aim for.


We made the mistake of taking the lower fork of the trail which drops down into the creek forcing a bit of additional scrambling.  Later trips to the car revealed it's far more direct to just jeep going right at every junction and stay high.

Graffiti is a constant here and we passed a pair of disaffected teenages sitting in the shade smoking pot in 90 degree heat.


We used the bolts to set up three climbs.  Dihedral 5.7 to the left, Polished 5.10c/5.8 in the middle (which we found impossible down low so you can see Ross traversing from the right in the picture above) and Horn 5.10a on the right. This photo is the best overview of the routes I've seen.


The setup is simple since you can just scramble up to the top and follow a ledge to the top of the waterfall.




There were three sets of bolts for the climbs which were all in good shape and another set with hangers on the rock maybe 10 ft behind that seemed to have been drilled recently. We used those to rap down when we pulled everything.



There was also a bolted sport route of all things on the boulder near the anchors that we didn't try. (You can make out the rap anchor on the left side of the picture above.


We had a good 20+ people show up and had enough with the three climbs to keep everyone occupied though it's a shame there wasn't at least one more climb on the easier end.


View from the top of the waterfall.


This is the traverse from the start of Horn back to Polished which turned it into a slightly more reasonable climb.  The bottom had almost no friction due to the graffiti cleanup material. Once you make it back over the climb is around a 5.8


Horn on the right was the most difficult with the upper overhang defeating several of us.



There was another group there that had set up a rather awesome slackline a bit down the canyon which kept us entertained between climbs.


A few of us left work early but most folks arrived a bit after 6 and we were able to keep climbing until 8:30 pm or so at which point we were completely dependant on headlamps. So it was enough to make it worth the trip it's just a hell of a drive getting out there after work.