Bear Boulder and the area known as Flame Thrower (on the ridge behind Bear Boulder)are closed to climbing per the land owner, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park. This closure has been made fairly recently and the CDNP is posting signs to notify visitors that climbing on their preserve is prohibited.
This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.
This is a small group of boulders with drive-up access. The largest boulder has a number of interesting and tall boulder problems. There's even a fixed pin at the top for those who prefer to top-rope the tallest face which is about 20 feet tall. One of the nie things about bouldering here is that there are hardly any signs of civilization in sight. Hard to believe with only a short drive out of Las Cruces.
The rock quality of the largest boulder is quite good. Some of the surrounding boulders are a mixed bag as far as quality of rock/routes goes.
Getting There
Continue along Jornada rd until you reach a large the entrance to the Jornada experimental range (6.4m). Turn left right before the stone pillars and continue for another 1.2m. The boulders will be easily visible and a small rd leads right to them.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Bear Boulders:
Starts matched in a large pocket next to the start of Ursa Minor. Using this start and a small side-pull to the left, dyno for a good hold at the lip of the overhanging section. Mantle top-out....[more]Browse More Classics in NM
By Aaron Hobson Administrator From: Las Cruces, NM Jul 8, 2006
As ar as I know, the problems here are un-named. For simplification, I have been dubibng them myself. If you disagree with this practice, by all means let me know.
It would appear that the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park has placed these boulders off limits. I do not know if this is proper depending on the land status (it was Federal land prior to the park). There were additional climbs behind Bear Boulder and over to ridge to the nice south facing rock (Short-time area; one pitch climbs).
Bouldering in the Dona Ana Mountains started in the early 1970s. Reed Cundiff, Bill Hackett, Lee Davis and others went to Yosemite and brought the practice back to NM. Bear Boulder and Pizza boulders were developed first. As the decade progressed, the North Boulderfield, the North North Boulderfield and Mousetrap became popular.
Bear Boulder was named after my cousin Paul Seibert's nickname "Pooh Bear" (sorry about this sordid detail primo). Bear Boulder and the Pizza Boulders were closed due to very nice petroglyphs on the rocks and in the general area. Climbers were quite respectful of them but others painted over them, chipped them off or used them for target practice. Bear Boulder also has a section of "Mammoth Rubbing" which is apparently quite rare
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