Cragmont Park

The last time I was at this park was YEARS ago for a private party (we did take over the entire area with chairs & croquet playing). I had not actually ever climbed here and spent two days this weekend in a clinic to learn anchors, multi-​pitch climbing with hanging belay, and setting my own safety in mock lead.
The park gets a lot of use — and the climbing areas are limited, so it gets crowded feeling really quickly. You have a view into the backyards of all the privileged wealthy people who live all around in the Berkeley Hills — the sounds of their children’s skateboards, dogs, cars and even an occasional bare bottom sliding into a backyard hot tub, pretending nobody can see.
There’s a port-​o-​john — the stone building with the toilets was closed off years ago — allegedly for earthquake safety, but probably more likely to prevent vagrants/​transients from camping out overnight in there since it has a door that is hidden from the street. There’s one water fountain — plenty of dog poop, broken glass and cigarette butts (so — a reminder — pick up after yourself and your animals). There are plastic bag holders that are thoughtfully stocked with used plastic produce bags folded into little triangles (so they won’t blow away in the breeze) up by the water fountain.
The view is amazing from here — there is a great view from the street level/​top of the park where the single basketball net, benches, lawn and pavilion are located. If you walk around the rocks, you will see great views through the trees past the houses on the south & west side.
Keep Cragmont Park mellow!

An oasis of green and rock climbing in the middle of a nice Berkeley hood. Nice & uncrowded; we were here for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and only ran into four other climbers. You can get the route guides from a climbing book or app. We climbed a couple 5.7 trad routes and a 5.10a sport route.

This is a really cute, small neighborhood park in the Berkeley Hills above campus. I came here for a Intro to Rock Climbing Class and had a great time.
Heads up, there’s not much parking as it’s located on a hill in a residential neighborhood.
Walk up the path, past the creepy mini-​abandoned, overgrown fort-​like structure (most likely a former bathroom) and you’ll enter a medium-​sized grassy area. It’s lined with stone benches along the perimeter and there’s a basketball hoop too, but there’s only a tiny concrete area around the hoop, so don’t expect to even play half court; you can only practice some throws. My boyfriend joked it’s only for slam dunks.
There’s some picnic tables, and even a covered area with a trellis. If you walk back down the path, and circle past the creepy stone building, you’ll come to the backside of the park, which is more like a two-​story cliff you can climb. This is where the intro rock climbing and abseiling classes take place. It’s a pretty good spot for beginners to learn to rock climb.
This is lovely park for a picnic and we even saw a few pups strolling along off their leashes. Only downside is there’s no bathroom (hence the minus one star). There’s a port-​a-​pottie though.
We also happen to be at the park when Real Madrid played Inter Milan at Cal’s Memorial Stadium and you could hear the roar of the crowd which was fun. You may even be able to hear concert at the Greek Theater if you’re lucky! It’d make an awesome spot to relax with a picnic and listen in.

An awesome little place to climb in Berkeley. Although it’s small, you can spend hours here climbing and enjoying the view.
It’s a great place to top rope for beginners like me! I’d suggest looking up the routes before hand so you know where the anchors are. But there are a few climbers and climbing instructors there who are nice enough to guide you in the right direction.
The rocks don’t really provide a nice dry grip and there are routes that leave you in a weird position because parts of the rock jut out. Honestly it’s a great place to just practice and get a feel for rock climbing.
Side note: I really wish people would respect the area and not leave broken glass on the floor. Please pick up after yourselves. Pretty please?

Took a climbing instruction class here and loved the scenery. It is also dog friendly which is great since Im a dog owner. Beautiful views and there’s a wall from rock climbing so I am very happy to have found this little gem.

One side offers views of Cal in its entirety,…can spot Dwinelle, Campanile, Evans, Doe very easily.,.
The other, west, is of the Bay. Super cool and great little hike to it. Came over Labor Day weekend.
Came Saturday for the view. Annoying pledges from Cal (yes, you, SAE) during Rush left large cases of strewn PBR without throwing them. Shame on you — -

It’s my Baby! This is my most local park and I’m so grateful that it is here. All of the Berkeley Hills is incrusted with these gem spots that overlook the whole Bay and this is one of the best. This park can be accessed a few different ways — for me it’s from Easter Way, one of many walking paths that wind through the hills. The views are gorgeous — it’s a place where friendly dogs can go off leash without being harassed — there are some picnic tables — a gazebo-​like structure for shelter — and rock climbing! I’m not a rock climber but I enjoy watching and some of my visitors from out of town have given it a go. I like to take my chihuahua here in the mornings for some sun. He goes off leash and sniffs around while I lay on the grass and read or meditate. Great Park!

This small park has a basketball court, a covered patio with nice views of the bay and Albany/​El Cerrito, a lawn, and a porta-​poty. But, the real star of this park is the vertical rock face that is great for top-​rope climbing. There are a few bolts at the top, so minimal equipment is needed to get set up. Do be careful, though, as the rocks can get slippery up here. Enjoy!
Also, as a side note, unless you already live up the hill or are a wicked good biker, don’t attempt to ride here, especially in a fixie bike. I had gassed myself so much by the time I made it to the top of the hill that Cragmont sits on that I almost didn’t go climbing. :-)

A tiny little space nestled in the middle of a residential area in the Berkeley Hills, Cragmont Park pretty much serves one purpose, and one purpose only… rock climbing! I was here two weekends ago for the first time on a Living Social Adventures excursion, which consisted of two hours of rock climbing instruction from the team at Castle Rock Climbing School, and a BBQ lunch provided by Looney’s Smokehouse (
). I’ll leave the reviews for those two businesses for later, as this is about the park itself.
Cragmont can basically be broken down into two parts — the flat, grassy field and picnic area up top (including a dilapidated half court hoop) with spectacular views of UC Berkeley, downtown Oakland, and the Bay; and the cliff area below, which is used almost exclusively for rock climbing. The cliff provides just about enough room for the folks at Castle Rock to put up eight different courses of varying difficulty.
Although I’m no formative expert on the art of rock climbing, I would say that there is an adequate variety of terrain to satisfy individuals of all levels. I am quite amazed at how mother nature could have created this topography suitable for a wide skill range within such compact confines, as if it were sprouted up from the earth specifically for rock climbing.
On the side closer to the entrance, the wall is less steep, with more jutting ledges for gripping and securing your footing. As you head further down the path, this is where you can tackle some of the more advanced rock formations. Some are even partially upside down! I was kind of bummed at myself for only being able to go halfway up on the eighth and final course, but later on, I noticed that some of the instructors themselves were having a difficult time. Ahh… self vindication.
Although the park is far up into the hills, access is pretty easy, and it is just a straight shot up on the main road (which eventually turns into a small road). 3G access is quite spotty though, so if you are using the GPS on your phone, it may cut out a bit.
Would I suggest going all the way up to Cragmont for anything other than rock climbing? Probably not. However, the view alone is spectacular enough that if you are having a picnic, or perhaps you are a guy looking for a romantic, scenic spot to take a girl, it’s worth a quick detour.

With little more than a 1 page handout and a 7 year old book about climbing in the Bay Area, we piled 5 of us into a small but spirited Civic and headed into the Berkeley Hills. It took a bit to find this place because I need to step into my maps to read them and iphones make it hard to do that. But find it we did and after climbing over 15 cases of Nattie Ice that the frat boys were drinking up in the basketball courts, we finally managed to find the anchors.
We set up our brand new top rope, lovingly named *Nighten* for her inaugural debut. The climb itself was easy but it was a learning experience to set up our own top rope and not kill ourselves. We met some other friendly climbers who shared some of their equipment with us. Since this is just a stones throw away from my house, will definitely be back to check out some of the other (and hopefully more challenging) routes.

One of Berkeley’s smaller, tucked away parks. Good for climbing, but not much else. Although it does have a somewhat dilapidated basketball hoop located in the upper field across from the pavilion — so if you’ve ever dreamed of playing bball a wimbledon, or want to relive the 1998 Trey Parker/​Matt Stone film BASEketball, this may be a tenable option.

I discovered this park whilst out walking the other day, and couldn’t help but linger. It’s a beautiful, peaceful little spot hidden in the hills — the kind of place that makes you forget the time. One of these days on a warm evening I want to go up there and have a picnic dinner, climb trees, and maybe watch the sunset…

Here is a quick little history on this quaint park. It was used in WWII as a lookout at the golden gate to see the Japanese coming in.
That is how good the view is.
I use this park as a whiffle ball stadium.
Now thats a Sunday fun day

this park never struck me as a rock-​climbing park (although, luckily, this park is non-​violent, so it doesn’t tend to strike at all). instead, i come here to just hang out in the sun when the weather is nice. the grassy hill on the way up from euclid is a great place to lay out a towel/​blanket and catch up on some reading. lots of locals abound — when i go, i always see this semi-​septuagenarian man with his dog — and it’s on the peaceful side. there’s a basketball hoop, not that i’ve ever seen it in use, and, yes, the gazebo view is stellar. i prefer the view of downtown oakland and the cranes, though.

What? No rock climbing Unilocalers? Really? Is this a mistake?
Cragmont is one of three climbing parks in the Berkeley Hills. I went rock climbing for the first time here this past weekend and it seemed like a great place to learn to climb. I went with a group and an instructor and we did three different climbs. I think they ranged from 5.6 to 5.9.
This place loses one star because I don’t really think there is that much to do here beyond climbing. It sure is purdy though… definitely check out the view from the gazebo — amazing.