Dixon School Boulders
Land Manager
Dixon School Boulders are a part of Crowders Mountain State Park.
Area Rep: Paul Klem pklem@carolinaclimbers.org
Bouldering Beta
Special thanks to Matt Bielejeski for sharing this great guide spreadsheet to the problems at Dixon!
Directions
Dixon School Road Boulder is located about 45 min. east of Charlotte, NC.
Crowders Mountain State Park Boulder Access
108 Van Dyke Road
Kings Mountain, NC 28086
• Take I-85 South to Exit 5, then take a left off exit ramp onto Dixon School Rd.
• Go ~1.5 miles to first major intersection with flashing yellow light, Bethlehem Rd.
• Take a left on Bethlehem Rd and go for ~1.2 miles.
• At the fork with the brown state park sign, stay right on Van Dyk Rd.
• Turn right into the Boulders Access gated area and park.
What to Expect
The park ranger station has bathrooms and water fountains, as well as hiking trail maps. Fill out a registration form contained in the green box located at the ranger station, put the form in the slot, and carry the yellow copy while at the boulders. Please respect the closure times posted on the sign in the parking lot and plan to be back at your car before the area closes. Roped climbing is currently not allowed at Dixon School Road Boulders.
CCC and Dixon
The CCC has worked with NC State Parks since the openeing of Dixon as a bould
ering area. We have worked to eliminate graffiti and have serviced the trails. Please stay on established bouldering paths and report graffiti or stewardship issues to the CCC.
ering area. We have worked to eliminate graffiti and have serviced the trails. Please stay on established bouldering paths and report graffiti or stewardship issues to the CCC.Approach
Total approach time from the ranger station to the lower boulders is 10-12 minutes along moderate terrain. After making sure to register, walk back toward the main gate then walk the road back the way you drove in. Walk over the crosswalk, then cut up and right onto an obvious trail at the 2nd No Parking sign.
Geology
The Dixon Gap Metaconglomerate is a metamorphic rock derived from quartz pebble conglomerate, a type of sedimentary rock deposited by streams and rivers.This rock unit and surrounding units were deformed by tectonic stresses during mountain building events.The rocks record evidence of stress in the football shape and alignment of the white quartz pebbles that were originally round.
Holds found on boulder problems are formed by weathering that creates cracks, seams and edges along rock foliation (alignment of constituents of rocks during metamorphism). Additional holds are found in later formed fractures (cracks) and natural exfoliation of the rocks exterior (shedding of layers like an onion).
Looking at the orientation of the layers of quartz pebbles, we can see that some of the boulders appear to have tumbled from their original vertical orientation. The original rocks were deposited in layers that were subsequently uplifted and folded into an antiform (a series of layers warped into an upside-down u-shape pattern).
Topos
The yellow line is the old logging road upon which the bouldering trail is based, which intersects with the official Ridgeline Trail, shown in green. Numerous smaller paths between the individual boulders are present.
Photo credits: Rob Pryor