I'd like to walk along some bluffs, but there's a bunch of gravel at a 45° angle along the bluffs that's kinda slippery and treacherous.
My question is: what kind of gear would assist me with this? I'm thinking walking sticks but maybe cleats as well?
The following two pictures show the terrain I'm describing:
This just doesn't look like it can be done safely. It looks like it's about 15 meters tall (diagonally), and the brush is thick enough to prevent you from just staying low down near the water. A fall from this height could easily result in serious injury or death.
Soccer cleats or trekking poles will not help here. They will be no more stable than the underlying dirt, which looks like loose, chossy gravel.
You could try to do it using mountaineering techniques, roping up and placing protection. However, the rock quality looks bad, and I don't see any cracks or other features that you could place protection in. You could try slinging trees and bushes, but from the photo that doesn't look like it will work.
If the rock quality of the cliffs is better than it looks, then conceivably you could drill and put in bolts, then do this traverse with a hand line or a belay. This would be a time-consuming and expensive project, would require permission from whoever controls the land, and would not be practical if you're talking about doing kilometers worth of traversing along this slope.
If you do decide to attempt it, wear helmets.
A pair of medium to tall height hiking/hunting boots, with gaiters or long trousers over the top to keep out stones. Ideally these will be something with a stiff upper and a full shank (inside the sole), so that you can place your foot perpendicular to the slope and not roll at the ankle.
Walking sticks, use appropriately should help with stability, but will not help you if you start to slide, or fall over and slide.
Assuming by cleats you mean like on the bottom of football/soccer boots or perhaps on sprinter's track spikes, rather than the tread pattern of the same name. If the football boot style, then these will not help you at all, unless they can make purchase on the soil underneath the loose rock. Football style cleats are designed for purchase on soft ground such as grass or dirt, rocks will lower their traction. Your best bet will be a pair of boots with a mud/dirt-shedding pattern so that they don't pick up mud or clay and provide less traction.
On a side note - as these cliffs appear to be overhanging in some respects, and the slope below consists of loose rocks - these have all shed from the cliff and can do so at any time. Wearing a climber's helmet may just save your life.
these will not help you at all is my quote. Poles, I disagree; it is highly surface dependent. It is very hard to tell from the photos what the exact surface is, it looks like it is a small layer of loose rock over dirt (second photo). In this situation, poles may poke through the rock, to provide purchase. Cleats, definite no, the surface area on footware is too great to provide any penetration.