Dardanelle Rock

Dardanelle Rock or “D-Rock” as its known by most locals and climbers, is located in Dardanelle, Arkansas just south of Russellville. Its location is the midpoint on the river between Arkansas’ two largest cities (Fort Smith and Little Rock) and was known to early white settlers as “Big Rock” while the next outcropping downstream was dubbed “Little Rock.”

There isn’t much documented information about its early climbing history. Jason Cook (a Dardanelle local) was the original to scope out this area and place (and replace) the sport climbing hardware. Stark Ligon (a Little Rock climber) finished the job with help of Jason.

Its one of the smallest crags in Arkansas yet holds the highest percentage of 3 and 4 star classics of any climbing area in the state. If you aren’t climbing at least a solid 5.11 its probably not worth a trip if you’re traveling a distance but the fact that 21 of the 24 sport routes have fixed draws is quite the convenience. The approach is about a minute as parking is directly across the road. As with most climbing areas in Arkansas, the best sending temperatures are in the Fall and Spring. As an added bonus, most of the crag goes into shade after 11am so even summer climbing can be bearable. (Fennel, 2009)

Some of the most popular routes located on this small crag are:
The Stark Wall 
Money Shot (5.11a)****
Natural Born Drillers (5.11d)****
Rebel Yell (5.12a)****
Stark Naked (5.12c)****

Below are photo/video gallery links to climbers sending some of these routes: