Giant Rock in Landers: A Massive Boulder with a Unique History

• 4WD highly recommended
• The rock is 7 stories tall
• Please pack out what you bring with you

Driving out to Giant Rock was an adventure itself. We had to go through the town of Landers, past the Integratron and over a rough dirt road for a few miles. Eventually, as we rounded an extensive collection of boulders, Giant Rock came into view.

There were anchors on the rock, so I guess people do some rock climbing here.
At the rock, you can walk all around it, climb some of the nearby hills to see it from above, and look at the filled in hole that once was Frank Critzer’s home. 

1. Giant Rock was considered sacred to Native Americans who lived in the area for most of its history. 
2. Frank Critzer dug out the underside of Giant Rock in the 1930s and lived under it until a dynamite explosion killed him in 1942. He was also thought to be a German spy during WWII, but that turned out to be false.
3. In the 1950s, the rock became a meeting place for UFO conferences and was thought to be a place to commune with aliens.
4. In the early 2000s, a piece split off the rock, making it what it is today.

Details
Last Modified: December 14, 2020

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