Upper Canyon

Description 

This is an organizational entry for the database created due to its structure.

This area holds/describes the ice that forms to the N of the dam. It is arbitrarily named the upper canyon.

Don't expect marvelous, towering, mouth-watering ice sculptures here. At best, you'll find something to scratch up in very cold & wet stretches of a deep Denver winter. Marginal at the most. Still, ice climbers have been known to be desperate...dripping water down the outsides of silos, swinging tools at styrofoam, driving hours & hours just to look for a rarely-formed ice climb.

Various ice flows have been described by P. Hubbel in his Front Range Crags. Others have come in through word of mouth.

Getting There 

S of Denver, this is in the Castlewood Canyon State Park. It lies E of I-25, north of Castle Rock, south of Denver. Probably if you come from anywhere further a field, you may be disappointed with what you may find here.

The best approach to these climbs is from the top. Drive to the Southern Entrance and park at the second parking lots on the Right after the visitor's center. (I believe this parking lot is called Juniper Lot or something like that) Take the paved trail leading from the parking lot and follow it to the cliffs.