Indian Creek Utah

Indian Creek National Recreation Area is a rock climber's wet dream. The canyon walls surrounding Indian Creek rise up from the ground on all horizons like looming monuments. It is a sight that is unbelievable until you've been on the walls. Hiking up the talus slopes puts you at the base of innumerable cracks that seem to go on forever into the sky. Climber or not, if you've never been there, I highly suggest you put it on your list. At the Southeast corner of the Utah's Canyonlands National Park, it is only about an hour South of Moab and extremely accessible. Get there.

Indian Creek Climbing

Indian Creek offered so many great ultra classic climbs and shots. It was very hard to edit them down and decide on the best shots that showed Indian Creek, but weren't necessarily typical shots. These are some of my favorite climbing shots I've ever taken, I hope you feel the same.

Enjoy
Tyler Gates
Good Lfie Photography

Conor, unknowingly attempting a FA variation of
an unnamed 130' 5.10 on 2nd Meat Wall

Damien approaching the second awkward change
on another unnamed 5.10 on 2nd Meat Wall

Conor, after the cruxy change over on The Sicilian, 5.11,
on the Scarface Wall.

Damien rests before the crux of his first Indian Creek 5.11 lead,
Mantel Illness, Scarface Wall

Damien, working into the crux
Mantel Illness, 5.11, Scarface Wall

Conor, jamming his way to the finish on Wavy Gravy,
5.10-, Scarface Wall

The People

I came back with so many amazing images from Indian Creek, so I'm breaking the images up into separate postings. The first was of the great landscapes, this one will be of the great people I was with, and the next and final will be of the great climbing.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Camplife below the Gash

"Bellessimo!" Gourmet camp cooking brought to you by Damien & Megan

On approach to 2nd Meat Wall

Describing the change over on the Sicilian

mmmm...cams

Not too many better places to take a nap.

Approach to Scarface

Indian Creek Landscapes

Looking Towards the Six Shooters from 2nd Meat Wall

I recently took a trip to Indian Creek Rec Area in Utah to do some climbing. I met up with a friend of a friend, Conor, and his two friends, Damien and Megan. Damien's an Indian Creek veteran and kindly showed the rest of us around on our first trip to Indian Creek, and my first time doing real trad climbing. More importantly he shared his plethora of gear, which without it we wouldn't have been able to climb anything, so thank you again Damien.

Indian Creek is at the south east end of Canyonlands National Park, about 40 miles south of Moab. The place is an unreal labyrinth of canyons, that seems to go on forever. It shares a lot of land with local ranches, and in fact used to be all ranch land. It wasn't until 1976, when climbers finally discovered and freed the first route on the Supercrack Buttress, that people started using it for recreational reasons. It was slow going, as far as climbing development goes, until the cam was invented. With the cam, good protection could be easily placed on any of the nearly parallel splitters covering all of the cliff faces. Shortly after climbers started flocking to the area the land was purchased from the ranchers and is now controlled by BLM with the help of the Access Fund and of course the Friends of Indian Creek(donations to either will help keep Indian Creek free and accessible to everyone, including climbers).
The landscape in the area is at once awe inspiring and humbling, especially as you discover just how truly massive the canyons and cliffs really are. I hope you enjoy these landscape photos of the canyons. The next posting will be filled with climbing shots from the area.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Bridger Jacks and Six Shooters

Looking East down 211

Where it all started, Supercrack Buttress

Donnelly Wall

Sunset over the Six Shooters

Hooked on Crack

Hey everyone,
I'm spending the week in Indian Creek, right outside of Canyonlands National Park. Everything here is trad crack climbing, and tons of it. Unfortunately it's raining/snowing here after a day at almost 70 degrees here yesterday, so we're spending the day in Moab.

The landscape is awe inspiring and the climbing is humbling. Tons of photos coming next week so keep checking back!
-Tyler
www.GoodLifePhotography.com

Utah

Hey everyone!
I am unfortunately going to be away from the internet for the rest of the week. I am about to leave to drive up to Indian Creek, in Utah, to do some climbing/photography. I had two more posts planned before I left for Emma and I have been outdoors too much for that business. So please check back in a week for tons of new photos!

See you all then.

-Tyler
www.GoodLifePhotography.com