Continental Crag
16 routes · sandstone (Fountain Formation) · 6,683 ft
What's here
5.6 to 5.11, with no single grade dominating.
Counted from the 16 climbs here that carry a grade. Shown only where there are at least 5 of them — below that the shape is noise.
How well located
Position on wall known 16
No route here has its own point yet. The map pin is the crag. At the wall? Survey it: 30 seconds per route.
The order of the climbs along this wall is known from the open catalogue, so a few surveys go a long way: standing at Whatever Pops Up Next, Primal Scream, Fuzzy Crack (3 climbs, about 90 seconds) would place up to 13 more climbs between them. Survey the wall →
“Up to” because the estimate between two surveyed routes is only used when they turn out to be close enough together on the ground.
The guidebook for this area
Eldorado Canyon: A Climbing Guide - Steve Levin - 4th ed. - 2024 every crag it covers
From the publisherBookshop.org
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The book has the topos, the descriptions and the local knowledge this page can't. Buying it helps support the people who know the crag best.
Rock, from the geologic map
Fountain Formation. Paleozoic, about 323 to 273 million years old.
Maroon and red, arkosic, thick-bedded, coarse-grained to pebbly, cross-bedded fluvial sandstone and conglomerate containing thin layers of dark-maroon, hard (siliceous), micaceous siltstone and silty, fine-grained sandstone. Coarser beds commonly fill shallow channels. Sandstone locally bleached light tan to white. Clasts are well rounded to subrounded, as long as 25 cm, and composed mostly of Proterozoic rocks. Scott (1972) reported rare lower Paleozoic clasts in lower part of formation in Morrison 7.5-minute quadrangle. Thickness in quadrangle about 600 m; in Eldorado Springs quadrangle a measured section is 305 m thick (Wells, 1967). Mapped only in Denver Basin
This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:100,000 sheet (Kellogg and others, 2008, USGS Geologic Investigations Series 3000). The point can be a few hundred metres from the rock, a cliff often stands on the line between two units, and at that scale a line on the map is about 100 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. The rock named at the top of this page comes from the public geology of this area; this card is the map's answer. Every crag on this unit: Fountain Formation. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.
On the map since 1899
The USGS has mapped this ground since 1899. 31 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Public domain, U.S. Geological Survey. The sheet shows the ground as the survey found it then, which is why a trail or road you know may be missing. Every sheet over this point, 1899 to 1983: USGS topoView.
In print since 1877
1877 Geologic Map of Colorado (Hayden), high-resolution scan · F. V. Hayden; scan by the Colorado Geological Survey · 1877
Geological and geographical atlas of Colorado and portions of adjacent territory · F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories · 1877
Trail and Timberline, volume 2 (1918) · Colorado Mountain Club · 1918
Free to read: public domain or government work. About Boulder as a whole, not this wall. More in the reading room.
From the archives
Photographs of this area held by the Library of Congress, oldest first. Every one carries the Library's own "no known restrictions on publication"; anything else is left out.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item
Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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2 more at the Library of Congress.
Photographs near this crag
Taken within 1.5 km of this crag's map point and published under a licence that lets us show them, from Wikimedia Commons. The coordinates say where the camera was, not what it was pointed at, so some of these will be the creek or the trail rather than the rock.
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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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1 more on Commons.
Routes
- 1 Whatever Pops Up Next 5.9
- 2 Welcome to Eldo 5.10a
- 3 Plate Tectonics 5.9
- 4 Continental Drift 5.10d
- 5 Rift Of Consciousness 5.11-
- 6 Bonsai 5.9-
- 7 Cougar Bait 5.10-
- 8 Last, But Not Least 5.7
- 9 Continental Soldier 5.6
- 10 River of Deceit 5.10-
- 11 Continental Breakfast 5.8+
- 12 Pangaea 5.10+
- 13 Primal Scream 5.11c
- 14 Whymper 5.9
- 15 On-Slot 5.11a
- 16 Fuzzy Crack 5.7
Also within 3 km
- Peanuts Walls105 m · 55 routes · 6,342 ft
- Eldorado Canyon Bouldering236 m · 134 boulder problems · 6,007 ft
- Hawk-Eagle Ridge397 m · 71 routes · 6,281 ft
- Devil's Slide404 m · 2 routes · 5,860 ft · Old Stage Road
- Kloof Alcove412 m · 12 routes · 6,344 ft
- Cartoon Crag419 m · 12 routes · 6,182 ft
Straight line between the two crags' map points, each of which can be some way from its rock. For when this wall is full, or the sun has found it.
Photos from climbers
No photos here yet. If you're at the crag, yours would be the first.
Taken at the crag by climbers and published as they sent them. Each one's own location had to be within 0.5 km of this crag before we accepted it. See something that shouldn't be here? Use Report this photo under it and it's hidden at once. Anything else, write to us.
Conditions reported
Nothing reported recently.
Report what you see
Reports are dated and fade on their own: wet rock after 3 days, a bad bolt after a year. No names, no text.
Access & safety
The map point for this crag is on land managed by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (state), in Eldorado Canyon State Park. It lies inside state park.
The boundary is close. Land managed by City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks comes within 250 m of this point, and the point is not the rock — the wall itself may be on the other side of the line. Check which before you rely on either one's rules.
Land manager from USGS PAD-US (public domain), read 2026-09-29. It is the manager of the crag's map point, which can be a long way from the wall. What you may do on the rock is the manager's to say, not ours.
- Managed by
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife (Eldorado Canyon State Park)
- Fees
- $10-12/vehicle (CO plate), $15-17 (out of state), $4/person on foot or bike. Annual vehicle pass $80, family $120, Aspen Leaf (64+) $70.
- Reservations
- Timed-entry vehicle reservation required Saturdays, Sundays and summer holidays, May 1-Oct 1 (cpwshop.com, 30 days ahead, 2-hour windows). Not needed on foot, by bike or on the free Eldo Shuttle.
- Hours
- Park: sunrise-sunset daily. Visitor center 9am-4pm, closed Thursdays.
- Dogs
- Leashed dogs permitted.
- Parking
- No reliable cell signal at the gate to book on arrival; reserve before you drive.
- County
- Boulder County
Checked 2026-09-29 against source 1, source 2, source 3. Rules change: confirm with the land manager.
Rules for all Colorado Parks & Wildlife land
- Fees
- Every Colorado state park requires an entrance pass for motor vehicles. A daily vehicle pass is $4 to $17 depending on the park; an individual pass covers entry on foot or bike.
- Reservations
- Eldorado Canyon runs timed-entry vehicle reservations on summer weekends and holidays; see the park's own page. Other parks do not require one to enter.
- Permits
- A daily pass is valid until noon on the day after purchase. The annual Keep Colorado Wild pass is $29 and is bought with a vehicle registration.
Read on Colorado Parks & Wildlife's own pages, checked 2026-09-29 by John Crawford. What they require, in full, or their own climbing page. These apply to the manager's whole holding; anything specific to this crag is above.
Nearby, from OpenStreetMap
- Toilets
- 337 m away (map)
- Mapped parking
- 240 m away (map)
Distances are a straight line from this crag's map point, which can itself be hundreds of metres off; a road may be much longer. Mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so a toilet missing here may simply be unmapped. Parking here is what OSM has drawn nearby, not a guidebook's directions.
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