Deep Cut Guide

Smelter Cliffs

4 routes · sandstone (Mesaverde Fm, undivided, with shale, coal) · 7,094 ft

Take me there Routes ↓ Directions

Help locate these routes: survey the wall

How well located

Position on wall known 4 

No route here has its own point yet. The map pin is the crag. At the wall? Survey it: 30 seconds per route.

Rock, from the geologic map

Mesaverde Fm, undivided (Mesaverde Formation) — sandstone, minor shale, coal. Late Cretaceous, about 91 to 87 million years old.

In northwest and west-central: Major coal beds in lower part; Rollins Sandstone Member at base in Delta, Gunnison, and Pitkin Counties. In southwest: sandstone and shale.

This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:500,000 sheet (Horton and others, 2017, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1052). 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 500 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. Every crag on this unit: Mesaverde Fm, undivided. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.

On the map since 1898

The USGS has mapped this ground since 1898. 30 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.

Thumbnail of the 1898 USGS sheet covering Smelter Cliffs
USGS 1:62500-scale Quadrangle for Durango, CO 1898 · U.S. Geological Survey · 1898 · 1:62,500 sheet
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

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, 1898 to 1983: USGS topoView.

In print since 1877

Free to read: public domain or government work. About Durango as a whole, not this wall. More in the reading room.

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.

Sheepherder near Durango, Colorado
Sheepherder near Durango, Colorado · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1939
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Durango, Colorado. Residential district · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1940
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Locomotives in roundhouse. Durango. Colorado · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1940
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Railroad yards. Durango, Colorado · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1940
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Residential district of Durango, Colorado · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1940
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Residential district of Durango, Colorado. Durango is trading, shipping and distribution center of southwestern Colorado · Lee, Russell, 1903-1986 · 1940
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

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.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20
Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 312 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 315 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 315 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 316 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 316 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

A kayaker tests the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCC · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 321 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 321 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 324 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 325 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 325 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 325 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado LCCN20 · Carol M. Highsmith · 2015 · 326 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item

Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

9 more on Commons.

Routes

Also within 3 km

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.

Pick a photo from your camera roll rather than taking one here: a picture taken inside a browser usually has no location saved in it, and we check that the photo was taken at this crag before publishing it. Photos of guidebook pages and topos are refused — they're the author's work. By sending one you're letting us publish it.

Nobody reviews these before they appear, so anyone can report one and it's hidden straight away — including you, if you change your mind, and including a photographer who finds their own picture here.

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.

Sun today
sun 07:20-08:20
Wall faces NE (USGS elevation). Shade from the surrounding terrain is counted.
Open sky in most directions.
Crags by sun and shade →
Rain & forecast
No recent weather for this crag.

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

Emergency: call 911. Read out your location: Works without signal. If GPS fails, this crag's approximate map point is 37.26083 N, 107.88361 W (Smelter Cliffs). That point can be off by hundreds of metres, so say so.

The map point for this crag is on land managed by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (state), in Bodo State Wildlife Area. It lies inside state conservation area.

The boundary is close. Land managed by City of Durango 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 Colorado Parks & Wildlife land

Fees
Every Colorado state park requires an entrance pass for motor vehicles. A daily vehicle pass is $4 to $17 depending on the park; an individual pass covers entry on foot or bike.
Reservations
Eldorado Canyon runs timed-entry vehicle reservations on summer weekends and holidays; see the park's own page. Other parks do not require one to enter.
Permits
A daily pass is valid until noon on the day after purchase. The annual Keep Colorado Wild pass is $29 and is bought with a vehicle registration.

Read on Colorado Parks & Wildlife'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
363 m away (map)
Mapped parking
407 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.

Keep Deep Cut Guide free

No ads, no paywall, no account. You can chip in directly to help keep it running.