Horseshoe Canyon Ranch

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is a crag in Arkansas located on the premises of the Horseshoe Canyon Dude Ranch. The rock is southern sandstone, and it has over 600 routes. The base of the crag is about 100 feet up from the valley floor providing dramatic views on many of the exposed routes. It has a large variety of routes from 5.6s up to 5.14s.

HCR is about 4.5 hours away from Memphis, so we only do overnight trips to HCR. There is a $10 per climber fee to climb, which will be included in your MOCS trip fee.

Lodging

HCR has a lovely campground with bathrooms including showers, grills for cooking, sinks for dish washing, and a pavilion. Camping at HCR is on a first come, first serve basis, but it is rarely filled. There are a plethora of surrounding campgrounds in the unlikely case that you show up and find the HCR campground full.

HCR also rents cabins on site for about $120 per cabin per night. Feel free to rent a cabin yourself or to contact us about renting a cabin as a group. The cabins and tents are close to one another, so folks staying at either will be able to hang out together.

Travel

It is each family's responsibility to get its child to and from HCR. 

Directions to HCR are here. The roads at HCR are well maintained gravel and don’t require any kind of off road vehicle.

Facilities

HCR has bathrooms on site, but not at the base of the crag. If nature calls during the day, you will need to either hike back to the base site or take care of business in nature. We will have a camp shovel and toilet paper that folks are welcome to use.  In that case, you will find these instructions helpful:

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/hygiene-sanitation.html

Remember that students will be on a buddy system while at the crag, so they will need to stay within voice contact of their buddies even when making an outdoor potty trip into the woods.

Hike In

As with almost all roped climbing outside, there is some hiking required to get to the crag from the base. There are no technical sections on the approach hikes, but you should wear tennis shoes at least or hiking shoes if you have them to prevent turned ankles (and missed climbing!).

Thankfully, the hike in is uphill, so the hike out at the end of the day full of climbing is downhill.

Supplies

You will need to pack food and water for the day and hike it down to the crag from the parking lot.  We do not generally return to the base during the day because it is at least a 40 minute round trip.  Remember when packing that we will be burning through lots of water and calories on the wall. We recommend 2 liters of water for each climber for each day, with additional water for non-climbing participants.

The crag at HCR is up above and away from the tree line, so there is lots of sun exposure and sunscreen is a must. As always when outdoors bug spray is also a good idea.

Supervision and First Aid

MOCS follows the American Mountain Guide Association scope of practice for climbing instruction, which means our outdoor instructors must be certified at the level required by the AMGA.  

Part of the AMGA requirement is that all guides be certified in wilderness first aid, and all of our instructors exceed the level of wilderness first aid certification required by the Scope of Practice, as certified wilderness first responders or EMTs. 

Leave No Trace

We will talk to all participants about the Leave No Trace principles of outdoor activities.  This means that every participant needs to make sure that she does not leave any trash or other traces of having been at the crag and that she should take care not to disturb the location more than necessary.  In addition to the ethical principles, we are guests of the family who owns the crag and hope to make many repeat visits to HCR in the future, so it's critical that we take care of the crag.

Equipment

Each climber should wear clothes appropriate for a long day outside in the weather, including hiking or athletic shoes for the hike in.  Each climber should also bring her climbing shoes and chalk bag for a good climbing experience. if you are part of the Memphis Rox school program and need help affording climbing shoes, let us or Memphis Rox know.

Each climber and belayer will also need a climbing harness and a climbing helmet.  We will have enough to lend every participant a harness and helmet. 

We're looking forward to seeing for a great day of climbing at the crag.