Mystic Area Bouldering

This Site:

If you are wondering how I found these cliffs and boulders I  usually started by surfing the maps at http://www.topozone.com and looking for narrow topo lines, i.e cliffs. Then searching for "boulders, ledge, rocks, erratics, perched boulders, cliffs" under Google with town names also produced a few bits of info. Then it was just a little hiking and driving.

Mystic Bouldering a Natural Bouldering Guide

Introduction:

A small group of boulderers have spent a good chunk of time establishing problems around Mystic, Connecticut. This group has consisted of a handful of folks from Southeastern and Central Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The rock around Mystic is a beautiful, usually solid, gneiss with an amazing 12 grit texture. This amazing rock is highly featured with good edges, pockets, crimps, and slopers. The rock tends to be VERY steep in some spots. This is especially true  for the Stoddard Hill State Park, the Rift Valley, the Dark Hollow Cave, and the Winding Hollow Areas. These are rocks that rock climbers dream about.

The coastal weather of this region helps in keep conditions good. When the rest of New England is getting snow, the warm Gulf Stream air from the nearby ocean keeps the white stuff away. That same ocean climate keeps things warm and sunny too. During the more temperate times when its hot inland, the sea breeze kicks in and cools things down in the evening.  The bouldering areas in Mystic are a great way to get into these amazing mystical forests that surround this historic seaport town.

All the bouldering areas in Mystic are within 15 minutes of one another in various sectors around Mystic, Groton, and Ledyard off of Route 184. The bouldering in Mystic is limited. Access is a REAL concern in some areas here as well. Tread lightly as you can. As most boulderers know carrying a huge pad in public, the bouldering life style is not the most commonly recognized and understood form of recreation here in America. However, we are hopefully making good steps in changing that. Maybe someday bouldering will be considered a more common, accepted, and celebrated sport like in Europe. This site's purpose is to help us as climbers preserve some knowledge of what has been done for the future Mystic climbers. The site contains a few topos and pictures of the local bouldering spots. New areas are being found regularly. Some of these have good access. This site will keep the scene informed as much as possible.

The bouldering areas are listed by their distance from Mystic, near to far. Click on the red hyperlinks for picture topos, photos, and videos. 

Below: Dan Bates