Tom Grundy's Courthouse Butte And Bell Rock Page

The weekend after recovering from our Grand Canyon trip we were in Flagstaff and looking for something outdoors to do. We decided on a trip down to Sedona to summit a few bumps - ones that required a rope. After some internet research I decided on Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock with other options if somehow that went very quickly.

Feb 12-2022 We got up early - in the dark and got some food and caffeine into us before heading down I-17 towards Phoenix. We cruised down the hill and then turned back up towards the Village of Oak Creek as it began to get light. We parked at the Bell Rock Vista parking area and loaded up as the first light started to hit the peaks. We could see a bunch of people on a ledge near the top of Bell Rock. The trail towards Courthouse Butte was like a sidewalk so we had no problems getting to the point where we left the trail. Then we headed up a use trail a bit before I stashed a 48 oz water bottle near the base of the rock on the way up.

Bell Rock in the morning light

the trail to Courthouse Butte early in the morning

We took a bit of a variation from the main route cutting around to the right a little early and then scrambling up into the bottom of the bowl before a rising traverse brought us back to the regular route. The next difficulty was a scramble up a steep slab with a few holds next to a dry fall. There was an anchor at the top of this. Then we continued up the slabs and up into the next big bowl - with some brush to contend with we traversed around to the right to the steep arete where the crux of the route was, a 5.6 or so bit of steep climbing with a few bolts and a fixed line. This is the route taken by the first ascentionists back in the 30s - possibly the first technical climb in the area. Since you never really know how solid a fixed line is plus I like to climb I clipped the bolts (that had hangers, they didn't all have them) and tied a loop into the rope to clip into also. Then I bouldered up through the steepest move protected by a bolt - it felt pretty solid 5.something with my Altra approach shoes and a pack, the guidebook says 5.6 and online it says 5.6 A0.

bolt without a hanger

Above the fixed rope and anchor we scrambled up to the right (should have gone slightly left through a little gap) and then wlaked the remaining 400 or so feet to the summit. The views were most excellent and we enjoyed our first summit cookies of the day.

summit cookie on Courthouse Butte

panorama from the summit of Courthouse Butte with Iris coming up on the right

Oak Creek Spire

For the descent we rappelled down the fixed line and the dryfall. I traversed out to the west above the dryfall to check out some ruins and bedrock mortars there and then we followed the usual route down which took us past some more ruins and was easier scrambling than the way we came up. I still had plenty of water but retrieved the stashed water and we had a sandwich before heading on towards Bell Rock. We also saw there were people climbing up Coyote Tower on the SE side of Courthouse Butte.

Iris descends the upper rappel on Courthouse Butte

bedrock mortar

ruined wall under an overhang

Bell Rock is a very popular area and there were plenty of hikers and mountain bikers of all shapes and sizes out on this nice Saturday. We passed most of them as we walked around the S side towards the scramble up. Leaving the trail we followed slabs and anastomosing social trails up. Soon we had left most of the crowds behind, but there were still a few people scrambling around above us. There were a few 3rd or 4th class bits of scrambling up to the plateau near the top. There we traversed around to the base of the actual climbing - the 5.8 Kamps Route. We flaked out the rope and got geared up. We were in the shade here so we also put on some layers. The first bit of climbing past a bolt up to a 2 bolt anchor was pretty easy. I clipped into one of the anchor bolts with a long sling and then started up the corner with a crack. I mostly stemmed my way up high and placed a few pieces clipped to the rope with one long sling (I was a little short of slings on this climb). Then there was a grunt move up higher in the stem and a long reach to jam in the crack and pull myself up. I completely skipped the bolt with no hanger but a washer and a wingnut as it was a bit off route and I was limited in my slings. The next bolt also had no hangar so I used a nut cable. Then there was another decent bolt and some delicate choss stemming before one last cam and some awkward jamming past an overhang and I was on top of the climbing. I set an anchor and brought Iris up. She had to hang when she started the top part facing the wrong way and it was putting weird force on her knee. Then we scrambled the last few feet to the true summit for cookies and posing in the sun.

panorama from the summit of Bell Rock - Courthouse Butte is middle right

Courthouse Butte from Bell Rock

Sadly we didn't find a summit register by the actual summit. I imagine there are orders of magnitude less people that get to the true summit compared to the plateau below. There were heaps of people all over the lower flanks below us, many posing for pics or taking selfies and we imagined all the posts about the vortexes and epic hikes and so on. Yes, there was someone playing a didgeridoo, it was Sedona after all. We considered trying to rap down the N side but it didn't look like the 60M rope we had would make it (I later saw a pic of someone who just barely made it with their 60M and rope stretch). Back at the base of the summit pitch we packed up the climbing gear and scrambled around to a plateau on the S side - but evidently missed the E side plateau that might have a summit register.

Iris rapping from Bell Rock

Iris posing on a lower peak of Bell Rock

We scrambled back down and then cut around the N side of Bell Rock and cut back to the trail between it and Courthouse Butte to hike back to the truck. Then we drove back to Flagstaff via even more touristy and built up than last time I was there Sedona and Oak Creek. We were going to stop at the vista but it was closed.

route down the west side - behind the tree and then to the climbers left side

On Feb 13th we hiked up O'Leary Peak and Lookout as well as Dalton Butte. Sadly the trapdoor onto the walkway around the tower was locked but there was still a pretty good view from the stairs. This hike was mostly on gravel roads but at 8,938 feet we could feel the elevation. There were pretty nice views out over the desert and west to the San Francisco Peaks. We even saw a bald eagle.

Sunset Crater from the way up O'Leary with Dalton on the near left

San Francisco Peaks from O'Leary Peak
Elden on the left, Agassiz and Humphreys are the taller ones on the right

Iris ices her knee with a bag of snow

Marston mat on the steepest part of the road up to the tower

O'Leary tower from Dalton

tree growing out of a lava flow and Sunset Crater

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