Honeycombs

 

 

 

 

 

North Umpqua, Oregon

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Honeycombs rise up on the northern rim of the North Umpqua river east of Roseburg, Oregon.  The river cuts a deep channel coming out of the Cascade Mountain range and drains into the southern portion of the Willamette Valley.  A little known and, judging from the amount of moss on most of the Southern Honeycombs outcropping, little used climbing place that has further potential.

This was a first for my niece, Melodie, as she had only climbed in a gym before trying this slotted sandstone.  Taking a steep, dirt road up from the river, you have to hike in about a mile off a BLM road to reach the two seperate climbing areas.  The above picture is the North Honeycombs while the picture below is the South Honeycombs.  There is another section but it is closed due to it being a raptor mating grounds.

This was also Tanis' first time climbing outside.  He was a bit nervous and ended up enjoying swinging on the rope quite a bit more than actually climbing.

 

 

 

 

 

The South Honeycombs are extremely mossy, giving you a decent dirt and debris shower every time your hand slips over a shelf above you.  It is pretty dirty climbing and short.  Had we been able to make the short scramble up to the North Honeycombs, we would have.  They appeared to have a lot more sun exposure and less moss.  The back side of the South Honeycombs has a very interesting bouldering area.  I wasn't able to explore it as much as I would have liked, but from the outdoor carpet patch on the ground, I could tell others had had the same thoughts.

Each of us were able to get up on the rock a little bit and we had a fun afternoon out in the woods.