Golden Ladle Bouldering

The Golden Ladle area was the first area to be developed in Triassic. It consists of a handful of boulders; the primary one being called West Cat Daddy. The area is adjacent and Northeast to Land of a Thousand Boulders, with a prominent rise/hill separating the two areas.

The Golden Ladle is generally quiet compared to some of the climbing crowds you'll occasionally run into just over the hill in Land of a Thousand Boulders. More often though you will run into people 4-wheeling, dirt-biking, or target shooting in the area of Golden Ladle.

There is some pretty heavily impacted camping areas near Golden Ladle, all free and on BLM land. There are many camping options if you drive around a bit and do some searching. There are no organized camp grounds in the immediate area.

The rock is generally a large grained sandstone, fairly gritty and softer than many other types of sandstone in Southern Utah. Holds can and do break, especially in the spring when things are drying out from a wet winter.

History: Recorded development of the area began in 2002 by Darren Knezek, with the help of Andy Knight and Jeff Baldwin. They were prolific workers and within 9 months cleaned and climbed over 300 boulder problems! It is possible other climbers had experienced the area, but with so many boulders and problems it is entirely possible that no traces of these earlier climber's were left on the rock. With the publishing of 'A Bouldering Guide to Utah', the most comprehensive boulder guide to Utah published in 2003 by Baldwin, Beck & Russo, the Triassic area boulder problems were finally being documented and the area has since exploded into a popular area with hundreds of problems ranging the gamut from easy V0's to hard V11's.

Throughout the Triassic area an observant person can find many ancient petroglyphs from earlier Native Americans who left their mark on many boulders. Some of this rock-art is faded and barely recognizable, while other's are still quiet preserved. There are also some cowboy-glyphs in the area which are interesting. This boulder filled area has been attracting people of all stripes for hundreds of years.