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Carpenter Ridge - Paradise Wall
Colorado
> Naturita & Paradox Va…
Description
This is a long cliff comprised of the same Wingate sandstone encountered at Indian Creek. Although not as well fractured, the cliff is 350' tall and provides some good multi-pitch routes.
Getting There
From Bedrock, drive north a short distance and turn right on 950 road. When this Ts out, go left (X). The road turns right and becomes 900 road. When the road turns left again (V), turn right onto a poor dirt road. Bear left at a junction. Drive until your vehicle refuses to deal with the increasingly rugged terrain. A high clearance vehicle gets you a little closer but not that much. Camping is available along this road.
The road eventually turns into a climber's trail, well cairned, leading to the cliffs. The approach is obvious and involves about 800' of elevation gain.
Routes from Left to Right
![Left side of the Paradise Wall (Enigma area).]()
[Hide Photo] Left side of the Paradise Wall (Enigma area).
![Paradox Valley south of Paradise Wall - looking toward the Dolores River.]()
[Hide Photo] Paradox Valley south of Paradise Wall - looking toward the Dolores River.
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Idaho Springs, CO
Camping: there are a few campsites along the road and where it ends. They are all primitive and using leave no trace camping ethics is advised.
Approach: a solid 45 minute vertical hike is required to reach the base of the wall. Have fun trekking all those cams up there.
Bird nesting: All I know is that last spring my rope gun and I were about to begin the second pitch of "Cheeseheads" (5.12-)on Paradise Wall when Mother Nature changed our plans. The whole first pitch we kept hearing some bird screaming. We werent sure were it was coming from until after transferring the rack I looked up and saw a huge eagle looking down at me from a ledge about 80 above. It then jumped off and did a flyby of our heads. We decided to rap instead of disturbing a possible nest and possibly having my eyes gashed out from a pissed off bird. We never saw a nest or baby bird. However, the behavior of that eagle causes me to believe that there is a possibility of nesting in the area. Thus, be aware of possible rapture nesting in the area and use good environmental judgment when climbing there. Maybe save climbing here for the fall or only do the single pitch stuff. Personally, I feel if we as a climbing community govern ourselves with respect to the natural environment we wont have to deal with bureaucratic suits directing us.
Access: I have no idea where private and public landlines are set. However, there seems to be a lot of ranches in the area, so please respect the locals.
Food and drink: Make sure to check out the Bedrock gas station for a cold beverage and chips. This place is nothing like your stereotypical urban gas outlet. Mar 20, 2007
To get ther,e you first must find a faint old unmarked double-track road that heads straight to the wall and follow it until your (high clearance) 4X4 can't go any further. I saw no cairns or any obvious trail and ended up bushwhacking straight up to the cliff heading to the right of the huge arch. We spotted about 12-15 high quality routes and only a faint trail traversing along the base. Many routes seemed to go multiple pitches. This place also has really "fresh" feel complete with loose rock and sharp edges everywhere! Hiking 45 minutes UP with an IC-sized rack is no fun, but the area is super cool. There is a ton of new route development to be done here, too.
Going all the way to the Creek next trip! Sep 15, 2009
Denver, Co
Durango, CO
Eldorado Springs, Colorado