Dayton Pocket Climbing

This digital Dayton Pocket climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Dayton Pocket days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Dayton Pocket is home to high quality bullet sandstone and spectacular formations that seem made for climbing. Some popular bouldering examples are Riverdance and its low starts, Western Gold, Balls Deep, and White Noise. Many problems are within 15 minutes of the parking including the Dayton Roof which has over 80 problems if you consider all of the crazy linkups. The scenery includes multiple creeks, waterfalls, swimming holes, boulders, cliffline, and century old mining infrastructure. In the summertime the trail is generally well maintained and some problems are cl... Show more

This digital Dayton Pocket climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Dayton Pocket days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Dayton Pocket is home to high quality bullet sandstone and spectacular formations that seem made for climbing. Some popular bouldering examples are Riverdance and its low starts, Western Gold, Balls Deep, and White Noise. Many problems are within 15 minutes of the parking including the Dayton Roof which has over 80 problems if you consider all of the crazy linkups. The scenery includes multiple creeks, waterfalls, swimming holes, boulders, cliffline, and century old mining infrastructure. In the summertime the trail is generally well maintained and some problems are climbable, but the best time to be here is in the fall and early winter when the colors are changing and the air is crisp. Dayton is an excellent choice whether you want the outdoor gym vibe or a remote high quality boulder in a pristine setting. HISTORY Climbers initially started developing the walls in the late 70’s with the majority of the routes (mostly sport climbs) being added throughout the 80’s and 90’s. No doubt the stronger climbers of the day likely dabbled on some of the roofs under the cliffline as well as some of the perpetually clean boulders, but no one was taking bouldering too seriously in Dayton at the time. A local teenager Nathan Steele and his friends added some problems in the early 2000’s, but it took some dedicated visiting climbers Andy Salo and Matt Bosley to put Dayton on the map as a legit bouldering destination. They shared their contributions with Ronnie Jenkins and other strong local climbers who continued to add quality problems. In the mid to late 2000’s Jimmy Webb went on a developing spree with other major contributions from Brion Voges, Rami Annab, Nate Draughn, Tommy Morrison, Chris Sierzant and others. Today, strong climbers continue to develop and new classics will be unveiled for years to come. To reach Dayton Pocket, first head to the town of Dayton, TN. From there, one option is to take a left on Market St. Drive .6 of a mile and turn left on Delaware. Drive 2.2 miles through some traffic lights to a left turn into Pocket Wilderness. The parking is about .9 miles at the end of the road.