Uinta or American Fork in July? Unfamiliar with the area and can't decide

My boyfriend and I are from CA and will be passing through the Salt Lake area mid July on a climbing road trip. We were hoping to find some great climbing in Utah around that time.

I'm wondering if folks have recommendations on Uinta or American Fork - if we only have time for one.

For reference:
- we climb sport (up to 5.11's) and trad (up to .10a)
- love a beautiful and peaceful campsite
- prefer shorter approaches
- sort of a wimp in scorching sun (me at least)

Thanks in advance for your tips!

Cari

hey you guys will love AF, you can find shade, very short approaches, fun swimming spot, camping is great too. primarily sport but you can find trad if you look for it. only downside is you gotta pay, might be a little crowded with tourist because of the timpanogas cave but other than those issues its awesome and my favorite in the wasatch, check out rock canyon too if you going to AF its only about 20 mins down state street, lots more fun sport climbs

Uintas for sure. Approaches are a bit longer but camping and temps are better. Plan for 15 minute thunderstorms at 3pm every day.

Get up in the high mountains. The climbing is incredible and the temps are fantastic. Sure there will be a couple afternoon thunderstorms, but it's totally worth it!

Climb the narrows in the Stansburys. There's a lot more there than is listed on mountain project. South Willow Canyon is a lot less busy than anything on the Wasatch Front and it's still very pretty. Camping, if not on a weekend shouldn't be too crowded.

Garret Nuzzo-Jones wrote:Climb the narrows in the Stansburys.

While the hike is short (you belay out of your car), there is exactly 1 route in their grade range at the Narrows. It will also be blazing hot in mid July.
The Uintas has hundreds of 10s and 11s in both sport and trad and is a few thousand feet higher in elevation.

really?, no maple canyon suggestions

Garret Nuzzo-Jones wrote:Climb the narrows in the Stansburys. There's a lot more there than is listed on mountain project. South Willow Canyon is a lot less busy than anything on the Wasatch Front and it's still very pretty. Camping, if not on a weekend shouldn't be too crowded.

For the record, this is a horrible suggestion. In first place was Rock Canyon, until this comment. I love to see how easily people can stray from such a simple question. Que the next post for The Schoolroom in Odgen...

Cari- Given your preferences the Uintas sound like just what you're after. For climbing, check out Ruth Lake, Stone Garden, and/or Moosehorn. Once you are there the camping should be fairly obvious.

You would love uintas, But ruth lake on a nice summer weekend is a junk show... I made the mistake of going there on a weekend last summer and will never do that again. I think the whole salt lake valley was at that one crag.

Thanks everybody, this is really helpful!

Based on the feedback I think we will go to Uintas, which sounds awesomes and makes sense logistically since we will be driving in from Idaho.

Camping looks plentiful but we will be rolling in on a Saturday (though staying into the week) so I'll look into reserving a campsite.

Any recs on best camping areas?

Thanks again!

Brendan N. (grayhghost) wrote: While the hike is short (you belay out of your car), there is exactly 1 route in their grade range at the Narrows. It will also be blazing hot in mid July. The Uintas has hundreds of 10s and 11s in both sport and trad and is a few thousand feet higher in elevation.

There's a lot more than 1 route in their range (up to 5.11s?), but it is certainly much more limited than American Fork. It will also be significantly less crowded. Uintas would probably be a better choice for that time of year temperature-wise. Just throwing another suggestion on the pile. It does win for shortest approaches though...