Gap Rock in Rifle & Indian Creek

Written by: Madeleine Berkowitz

After a luxurious stay at HMI campus between expeditions (beds! real beds!), F-Rock ‘23 got a passionate lesson on trailer organization from Michael and hopped on the bus to drive to Rifle Gap State Park. There, we set up our first base camp, which was certainly an upgrade from backpacking. With 2-burner camp stoves, water pumps just across the road, and indoor pit toilets, we were living the high life. The next step was getting used to the routine of our climbing days at Rifle: packing crag packs and crag snacks, and driving the half hour to Rifle Mountain Park. Rifle had something for everyone, even me, who’d never climbed anything more complicated than a ladder before this trip. We were all excited to climb hard, and we sure did. Highlights of our climbing days included some very friendly and fluffy crag dogs, meeting up with Trek for a jumbo 20+ person climbing party, and flight school (practice taking lead falls).

We also spent three of our days in Rifle doing trail work! In Rifle Mountain park, we built a turnpike to protect a section of trail that often floods. We hauled rocks, cleared brambles, and smashed more rocks into smaller rocks to cover the trail. The work was hard, but super rewarding, especially as we got to walk on the trail we’d built to get to our climbing spot the next day. We also spent a day planting trees at a nearby nature preserve. Between us, trek, and a number of other volunteers, we planted over 400 trees, and were rewarded with pizza and doughnuts!

When our time in Rifle was up, we packed up camp and drove to Indian Creek near Moab, Utah. Indian Creek has world-famous crack climbing, which is very difficult, very painful, and incredibly fun. We also got to start picking out which crags we went to. We spent four straight days climbing and practicing our crack techniques, which left us all pretty scraped up, sore, and satisfied. We battled through the pain, learned new skills, and got to wake up every morning to amazing views of the mesas and watch gorgeous desert sunsets every night.

In conclusion, F-Rock has climbed hard, learned a lot, and arrived between one and four dollars under budget at every single food shop. We’re just that cool. See you after the canyons!