*Arkansas Valley Bouldering East
1 route and 105 boulder problems · granite · 8,303 ft
What's here
VB to V8, mostly around V2.
Counted from the 105 climbs here that carry a grade. Shown only where there are at least 5 of them — below that the shape is noise.
How well located
Base placed (one source) 4 Position on wall known 67 Crag only 35
The order of the climbs along this wall is known from the open catalogue, so a few surveys go a long way: standing at Moccasin Slab Left, Rain Dance (2 climbs, about 60 seconds on Main Area) would place up to 9 more climbs between them. Survey the wall →
“Up to” because the estimate between two surveyed routes is only used when they turn out to be close enough together on the ground.
Rock, from the geologic map
Elephant Rock Granite. Mesoproterozoic, about 1,600 to 1,000 million years old.
Gray to grayish-pink, coarse-grained, massive to moderately foliated, porphyritic monzogranite and subordinate granodiorite. In the Harvard Lakes quadrangle, unit contains about 30–35 percent quartz, 25–30 percent plagioclase (oligoclase), 30–32 percent microcline, 6–12 percent biotite, 1–2 percent sphene, and trace amounts of apatite, zircon, and opaque minerals (Kellogg and others, 2013). Microcline phenocrysts are as long as 3 cm. Commonly weathers into distinctive rounded, reddish-brown tors with intervening areas of reddish-brown grus. Forms large batholith east of Arkansas River that extends from the northern Harvard Lakes quadrangle (Kellogg and others, 2013) as far south as the northern Salida East quadrangle (Wallace and others, 1997), a distance of about 42 km. Referred to as “granodiorite” several quadrangles south of Harvard Lakes quadrangle. Unit includes numerous outcrops of similar coarse-grained granite interpreted as blocks incorporated into Langhoff Gulch Granite (Ygl) in South Peak quadrangle. Formerly suspected to be equivalent to Paleoproterozoic Henry Mountain Granite near Gunnison (DeWitt and others, 2010), but a U-Pb zircon age from about 4 km north of Buena Vista in an abandoned train tunnel just south of a pinnacle named Elephant Rock, located atNE1⁄4 sec. 31, T. 13 S., R. 78 W. and composed of Elephant Rock Granite is 1,436±8 Ma (Moscati and others, 2017). A U-Pb date from a roadcut on Highway 285 east of Buena Vista is 1,434±8 Ma (Moscati and others, 2017). The name Elephant Rock Granite is herein formalized and location X (38°52 38"N., 106°08 44"W. on the USGS Harvard Lakes quadrangle) is hereby designated as the type locality
This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:100,000 sheet (Kellogg and others, 2017, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3382). The point can be a few hundred metres from the rock, a cliff often stands on the line between two units, and at that scale a line on the map is about 100 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. The rock named at the top of this page comes from the public geology of this area; this card is the map's answer. Every crag on this unit: Elephant Rock Granite. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.
On the map since 1955
The USGS has mapped this ground since 1955. 20 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Public domain, U.S. Geological Survey. The sheet shows the ground as the survey found it then, which is why a trail or road you know may be missing. Every sheet over this point, 1955 to 1994: USGS topoView.
From the archives
Photographs of this area held by the Library of Congress, oldest first. Every one carries the Library's own "no known restrictions on publication"; anything else is left out.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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Photographs near this crag
Taken within 1.5 km of this crag's map point and published under a licence that lets us show them, from Wikimedia Commons. The coordinates say where the camera was, not what it was pointed at, so some of these will be the creek or the trail rather than the rock.
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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Routes
Almost a tunnel
- 1 Almost A Boulder V4
Beef Supreme Boulder
- 1 Beef Supreme V5
Elephant Rock
- 1 Southeast Undercling V6
Ernst Boulder
- 1 Gypsy Monger V6+
- 2 Ernst Center V5
- 3 Ernst Arete V3
First Roadside Boulder
- 1 West Side Left V3
- 2 West Middle V3
- 3 West Right V3-4
- 4 West Arete V4+
- 5 South Left V3
- 6 South Middle V2
- 7 South Right V3
- 8 South Right Arete V4
- 9 East Arete V2
Hilltop
- 1 The Helmet V4+
- 2 Another Austen Arete V5
- 3 Diamond Plate V3+
- 4 Diamond Plate Arete V1
- 5 Hilltop Warm-up V1
- 6 Hilltop Slab V2
- 7 Dyno Problem V4
- 8 JM Problem V5
- 9 Adrian's Traverse V6
- 10 Chad's Traverse V4
Lizard Head
- 1 Layback Arete V0-
- 2 Snaggle Tooth V0
- 3 Lost My Nose V1-
- 4 Gecko V2
- 5 Neck Press V1
Main Area
- 1 Moccasin Slab Left V2
- 2 Moccasin Slab Right V3
- 3 Far Left Warm-up V2-3
- 4 Small Roof Warm-up V2
- 5 Warm-ups V2-3
- 6 Boy Named Sioux V4
- 7 Mano V4-5
- 8 Left Line V1-2
- 9 Middle Line V2
- 10 Right Line V2
- 11 Rain Dance V4
Patina Boulder Area
- 1 Left Slab Patina Boulder V3
- 2 Middle Slab Patina Boulder V3
- 3 Right Slab Patina Boulder V2
- 4 West Face Arete V3
- 5 South Face Left Patina V2
- 6 South Face Middle Patina V2
- 7 South Face Right Patina V2+
Picnic Area
- 1 NA? V2+
Pod, The
- 1 Upper Arete V6
- 2 Austen's Sloper Problem V6
- 3 Miggaloo V6
- 4 Austen's Left Arete V1-2
- 5 Austen's Problem V4
- 6 Dorsal Fin V4
- 7 Techy Left Arete V3+
- 8 Techy Direct V3
- 9 Techy Arete V3+
- 10 Font Arete V4+
Split Rock Area
- 1 Center Route Boulder V0-1
Three's a Crowd
- 1 Birth Canal V0-
- 2 Bullet Hole Slab V2+
- 3 Middlin' V0-1
Turtle Rocks Camping Area
- 1 Angel Wings Left V1
- 2 Angel Fire V6
- 3 Angel Wings Right V0-1
- 4 Birthday Sex V3+
Upper Deck
- 1 Rookie Card V8
- 2 Upper Deck V6
- 3 Self Promotion V7
Vow Boulder
- 1 Vow of Silence V3
- 2 The Silent Warrior V7
Elsewhere at this crag
- A Nice Route 5.7+
- BRIC Fund V2-
- Basis Points V5
- Beckelhymer Project V4-5
- Before the Thunder Clouds V2
- Bon Fil's V4
- Bon Fil's Project V7+
- Capital Income Builder V2-
- Echos Direct V4
- Goonies V3
- Heels Toward the Sky V3
- Instant Karma V5
- Jailhouse Booty V4
- James Bond V2
- NE Corner V0+
- New Year's Reservation V4-5
- Not Waking V2
- Options Trader V2+
- Pete's Crack V4
- SE Arete V3
- SW Arete V2
- Searching for Echos V4
- Southside Splitter V2-3
- Southwest Corner V6
- Squeeze Play V8
- Still Sleeping V2
- Sugar Pie Honey Bunch V4+
- Sunshine on my Crimpers V2-3
- Twist and Grovel V1-2
- Unknown Slab V1-2
- Vaguely Dog-like Creature V4-5
- Wambli Slab V3
- Watering Hole V0
- West Face V4
Also within 3 km
- The Corridor37 m · 9 routes · 8,240 ft · Turtle Rocks, Baby Turtle, and The Corridor
- Turtle Rocks80 m · 17 routes · 8,444 ft · Turtle Rocks, Baby Turtle, and The Corridor
- Almost A Tunnel87 m · 7 routes · 8,119 ft · Almost A Tunnel
- Forgotten Wall139 m · 1 route · 8,129 ft · Forgotten Wall
- Americus Wall153 m · 1 route · 8,290 ft · Americus Wall
- The Leaning Wall166 m · 12 routes · 8,153 ft · Leaning Wall, The
Straight line between the two crags' map points, each of which can be some way from its rock. For when this wall is full, or the sun has found it.
Photos from climbers
No photos here yet. If you're at the crag, yours would be the first.
Taken at the crag by climbers and published as they sent them. Each one's own location had to be within 0.5 km of this crag before we accepted it. See something that shouldn't be here? Use Report this photo under it and it's hidden at once. Anything else, write to us.
Conditions reported
Nothing reported recently.
Report what you see
Reports are dated and fade on their own: wet rock after 3 days, a bad bolt after a year. No names, no text.
Access & safety
The map point for this crag is on land managed by Bureau of Land Management (federal), in Royal Gorge Field Office. It lies inside wild and scenic river.
The boundary is close. Land managed by Colorado Parks & Wildlife or San Isabel National Forest comes within 250 m of this point, and the point is not the rock — the wall itself may be on the other side of the line. Check which before you rely on either one's rules.
Land manager from USGS PAD-US (public domain), read 2026-09-29. It is the manager of the crag's map point, which can be a long way from the wall. What you may do on the rock is the manager's to say, not ours.
Rules for all Bureau of Land Management land
- Fees
- Developed campgrounds are fee sites: at Shelf Road, Sand Gulch is $20 a night for an individual site and $40 for a group site, with no drinking water, hook-ups or trash service. Where a fee area is posted, you must register and pay within 30 minutes of entering it.
- Overnight
- Camping more than 14 days in any 30-day period at any one location is prohibited, including in a campground, and afterwards you must move at least 30 air miles. Personal property may not be left unattended anywhere on public land for more than 48 hours.
Read on Bureau of Land Management's own pages, checked 2026-09-29 by John Crawford. What they require, in full, or their own climbing page. These apply to the manager's whole holding; anything specific to this crag is above.
Nearby, from OpenStreetMap
- Toilets
- 186 m away (map)
- Mapped parking
- 71 m away (map)
- Campsite
- Unnamed, 163 m away (map)
Distances are a straight line from this crag's map point, which can itself be hundreds of metres off; a road may be much longer. Mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so a toilet missing here may simply be unmapped. Parking here is what OSM has drawn nearby, not a guidebook's directions.
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