Great limestone sport climbing in the high central mountains! The routes are on primarily bullet limestone reminiscent of Ceuse, Shelf, or Rifle, dependent upon the wall. This area is nowhere near tapped out so bring your Bosch, and throw in quality-only routes down canyon. Camping can be had right at the entrance to the canyon within forty yards of the first routes. Bring food and beer, since the nearest stores are 45 some minutes away in either Eagle or Basalt. There are some great 5.12ish routes to either side of the camping and parking - cave to the left, prow to the right. Cave-side the climbs are mostly stellar with great protection and lowering bolts, rings, etc. Development began in the early to mid nineties and is ongoing with new routes continuing to be added. No road choss here.
Getting There
From Eagle: Follow signage thru town towards Sylvan Lake State Park. You should eventually find yourself heading South on Brush Creek Rd. Ten miles from Eagle, veer right as the road turns to dirt. After approximately 15.5 miles from I-70, you will pass Sylvan Lake on the right. The road deteriorates somewhat at this point, but is generally fine for normal passenger cars the entire way.
Continue past the lake on Forest Service Road 400 for approximately 8 miles to FS 507. ~1 mile after the lake, stay left at the fork. ~3 miles past Sylvan lake, you will reach Crooked Creek Pass. Continue straight. 2 miles beyond the pass, you will pass Crooked Creek Reservoir on the left. 1 mile past Crooked Creek Reservoir, turn left onto FS 507. Turn right onto Burnt Mountain Road after 0.4 miles. This is a total of 9.1 miles past Sylvan Lake, or 24.6 miles from I-70.
0.2 miles after the right turn, you will see the canyon below and to the west. Turn right into the canyon. There is a road on either side of Lime Creek. The Punch Bowl is on the East side of the canyon, and all other crags are on the West side. The West Road is more suitable for low-clearance vehicles. If you're camping, the East Road provides more secluded camp sites.
According to my atlas this area can also be approached from Basalt.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Lime Park (a.k.a. Lime Creek):
Currently the first route on the left of the overhang, this amazing 11c starts from a sketchy belay, going to a large block that may fall off in 50 years. There is a glued hold just above the first bolt. The 3rd bolt starts the move to the right. A jug seems to magically appear whenever the holds run out. You may find yourself pumped out and epic-ing by the time you get to the somewhat of a downclimb crux near the last two bolts. Gain a good side...[more]Browse More Classics in CO
Damn, I was hoping the Front Rangers would never find Lime Park....
That being said, this area is a very good weekend destination trip. You will probably have the whole place to yourself. You must bring everything you need because it is a long rough road back to town. The road over Crooked Creek pass is not open in the winter or early spring, unless you have a snowmobile.
This is a very cool and wild place. Let's try to keep it that way.
It appears that the choss-starved Front Rangers have indeed found the place. I've heard rumors that a good majority of routes have been put in by Front Range Fiends who have run out of good stone. If you do go, bring your helmet and watch out for the limestone-dust-snorting choss-monkeys using backhoes, dynamite and other new route excavation equipment to trundle boulders into the scree. I've never been to Ceuse, but Shelf and Rifle are certainly not slagheaps like Slime Park. And the camping (in the cow shit!) is at your own risk, what with all the rednecks and yahoos drinking swill and blasting the hillsides full of lead till the wee hours of the morning. Sorry, no plug-ins for the EuroVans (if you manage not to rip your frickin' muffler off on the way in). I guess the gas sippin' Jetta is out - best just make it a Rifle weekend, 'less yer handy with oilpan repair. Oh, and the "moderate" lines seem to be loosely sprinkled with rusting coldshuts circa early nineties - musta' been put up by Old School Hardmen with balls as big as church bells and wallets as tight as a squirrels ass. If you slobbering Front Rangers (you know who you are) do come seeking your choss fix, don't camp in areas that ain't already camped in. You'll piss off the local cowpoke (Maynard), who's like as not to raise a stink with his buddies at BLM, who already view rock apes as rogues and miscreants, and would like nothing better to shut down all the crags on Uncle Sam's land. Your land? My land?.....
Lime Creek is a beautiful place, especially in the Fall when the aspens are turning, but the routes are pretty lame....for now. The rock is no where near as featured as Rifle, and Ceause?...give me a break! There is a cave that stands to clean up OK and a couple of really nice lines (even moderate ones), but this is really a "check it out once and move on" area. Rifle and Shelf are better destinations. Chances are you will run into "developers" looking to make a name for themselves (jump on board if you missed out on Rifle). Even with aggresive development, you will experience maybe 1 out of 50 routes worth classic status.
As a long time climber and caver, I urge you folks to please be considerate of this beautiful semi-alpine location. There are many fragile caves in the area that cavers have been visiting for decades. Cavers have fought hard to save this place from loggers, miners and developers. There is plenty of rock here, so please don't put bolts or boulder in the caves or the cave entrances. Cavers and climbers alike have had many areas in the country closed because of inconsiderate bolting. Let's not let Lime Park suffer the same fate.
As another long time climber and caver, I'd like to add my support to AC's comment - the caves in this area have been carefully protected for many years, and I'd hate to see them damaged by wanton bolting. Please, if you are going to climb here, be respectful of the setting and make every effort to minimize your impact!
If you're coming in the summer, I highly recommend bringing along some bug repellent (something that works against flies). It will make your climbing trip much more enjoyable.
Regarding sun, west-facing crags go into the shade early afternoon (1:30ish). The North Wall stays shady all day. East-facing crags are shaded by conifers, so you can climb on this side into the afternoon.
There are about a dozen lines left of the Punchbowl - I don't have good beta on these, but I hear there are a few decent routes. Anyone out there have beta?
There are miscellaneous routes popping up here and there, some look quite good. The projects that I'm aware of have red tags, I presume the rest are good to go.
Hey Nate, Left of the Punchbowl are some 10's/11's and then some harder stuff left of that. Luke Laeser bolted about 5 of the lines, not sure about the others.
Nate, please contact me, I'm responsible for a lot of the F.A.'s in Lime Creek, it looks as if you have named a lot of my routes, I would be more than happy to give you the correct route name's and info. Thanks
Mike, I'd be totally psyched to know what routes you did, names, grades, approximate dates, etc. As I mentioned in the postings, I gave the mystery routes names only as a temporary measure (Un-named 09 is a pretty boring name, no?). There are a few routes popping up here and there - if you have the scoop on these lines, let me know. By the way, I sent you an email via Mtn. Proj. back in July - you may not have gotten it. Feel free to email me via mtn proj with beta. Cheers, Nate
Lime Creek is included in the new guidebook Rifle Mountain Park and Western Colorado Rock Climbs. The author of that section of the book is Nate Adams, who contributed many of the routes to this site. As Nate, myself, and probably many others have found out, the history of Lime Creek climbing is not well documented. Apparently there are plenty of instances of people putting up routes in the woods, not really telling too many people, not really writing too much down about the routes, and then not really remembering too much about them when asked. For that reason, researching the history of routes at Lime Creek was very difficult, and the guidebook, and the info on this site, probably contains inaccuracies. But what is one to do? Not publish anything because the info is hard to come by, or publish what you know and hope that the "first draft" inspires others to remember the past and help fill in the holes that for now remain empty? I hope that over time the "picture" of the past at Lime Creek will become more clear, but for now please know that the information for this area is not really definitive.
If you have information that you would like to see in the next edition of the guidebook, or gripes about the current edition, feel free to email me at andy@wolverinepublishing.com. I will post corrections and updates at wolverinepublishing.com.
If you are making a trip here in the heat of summer and are coming along I-70, you should check out Fulford Cave. Lime Park can get hot and Fulford Cave stays around 40 degrees. There's some really cool huge rooms. It's maybe 20 miles away and a nice distraction and place to cool off. Be sure to bring a spare set of clothes, headlamp, helmet and gloves. Gets pretty dirty in there. I think a google search for Fulford Cave and/or Sylvan Lake can provide maps and info.
If you are camping and the main sites are full, there are two nice separate secluded sites if you make a right leaving either of the two roads leaving the canyon. You'll go over a cow grate then up a slightly rocky hill the sites are on your right after you crest the hill. No more than 5-10 minutes away from the canyon. I think this is south of the canyon. Or you could do what we did and ask to join the climbers you saw at independence pass the week before to join their site. Small world. Thanks guys and ladies.
Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get here from Avon? Thanks. How are conditions now? We're making a trip to Avon in August and wonder if we should try to climb here.
Wow, I'm glad to see sport/trad climbers are still such immature douche-bags. Front Rangers ? really ? This isn't a turf war you imbecile, it's climbing. No wonder there aren't any hard routes up yet, If it's being hoarded by a bunch of rednecks who can barely struggle up 5.12.
To those concerned about the caving and preserving the beauty of the canyon, how would a few bolts on choice overhangs effect you or the integrity of the canyon. Honestly, it seems like the hatred is going to be its downfall!
My opinion of the canyon (and I've done every route there worth its salt) is that it has vast potential. With the exception of the first hundred yards or so of the canyon, the rock is far cleaner and more beautiful than Shelf Road and most of Rifle, which tends to be blocky and ugly. I have explored a great deal of the gorge, and have found SUPERB overhangs (or caves, if you want to use a misnomer) with excellent feature that are much steeper than the Punchbowl. The east rim wraps around for a couple miles after the canyon opens up, and I know there is a great deal of potential there for those who are willing to make the hike.
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