Indian Creek - 2025 Spring and Summer Raptor Avoidance Areas

Excited for spring season everyone! Let's keep the bird stoke alive by letting these awesome birds have a place to raise their young. These are avoidance areas and climbers are asked to please avoid climbing there during the spring season. While there is no legal penalty for not avoiding them, you will be judged by your fellow climbers and your ticks on routes at these crags will ticks of shame and not ticks of sends.

2025 Crags on the list

• Echos
• The Wall
• Far Side
• Original Meat
• Tenderloins
• Second Meat
• First Meat
• Selfish
• Six Star
• Cliffs of Insanity
• Public Service Wall
• Disappointment Cliffs (Not the middle, only the far right side aka Hong Buttress and the southern aspects)
• Fin Wall
• Broken Tooth
• Cat Wall
• Slug Wall
• Reservoir Wall
• Critic’s Choice - FAR Left - New in 2024 and 2025
  • What they show on the map is actually only the extremely far left side of Critics Choice. Fists of Fury and left all the way to Crypto Wall. There are very few climbs over that way and will be really easy to avoid. From the map, this is where they are indicating the closure to be. This means Bunny Slope all the way right to Sparks Wall is open. Enjoy getting upside down on belly full.
  • 

Here is a downloadable PDF of the Map, the map below has been compressed by Mountain Project but can be zoomed in pretty well.

BLM Announcement

February 21, 2025

                                   

MONTICELLO, Utah – The Bureau of Land Management urges climbers and outdoor recreationists to avoid certain areas in Indian Creek from March through late summer to protect nesting raptors. Falcons, eagles and hawks return annually to nest on cliffs and rock walls, and human disturbance can jeopardize their success. Notices have been posted, and climbers should refer to BLM’s raptor protection map to identify avoidance areas.
Raptors and other migratory birds use shallow depressions on ledges, cliffs, and rock walls to build nests, often returning to the same site, year after year, to raise their young. These cliffs and rock walls are also highly sought after in climbing communities. Crags and cliffs known in guidebooks as The Wall, Far Side, The Meat Walls, Cliffs of Insanity, Public Service Wall, Disappointment Cliffs, Fin Wall, Broken Tooth, Cat Wall, Slug Wall, Reservoir Wall and Critic’s Choice have high potential nesting activity. While this list serves as a guide, it does not indicate every avoidance area or encompass all known names of the affected climbing areas. Please refer to the raptor protection map below to identify avoidance areas. Notices have been posted throughout the Indian Creek corridor.

Biologists begin the annual surveys of raptor activity in spring, verifying which nest sites are being used. Typically, by late April or early May, biologists can identify active nesting areas. At that time, areas without active nests will be cleared for recreational use. The BLM asks climbers, campers, and hikers to completely avoid areas with active nests until the young birds have fledged, which is usually by late summer.

The BLM is coordinating these raptor protection efforts with the Utah Trust Lands Administration, which manages portions of climbing areas known as Disappointment Cliffs and portions of the Second Meat Wall. The avoidance areas only cover a portion of Disappointment Cliffs; see the map for additional details.

In Southeastern Utah, these uncommon species continue to recover, thanks in part to cooperation from the public, climbing communities and governmental partners. The BLM would like to remind the public that there are private land holdings throughout the Indian Creek Corridor — please respect private landowners’ boundaries and signage.

For questions regarding climbing routes and avoidance areas please contact Jeremy Martin, Outdoor Recreation Planner, at the BLM Monticello Field Office at 435-587-1500.

Bump for a useful post that every spring/summer Creek climber should read

UPDATE: I have been working on a post about Indian Creek and Bears Ears and in the Management Plan they actually call out that these will be closures and not avoidance areas in the future. While the notice above says that they urge folks to avoid, the next notice for this will likely be that the areas are officially closed for the season.

SSP-11: Ropes and other climbing aids are prohibited for accessing nesting raptors. Agencies will
collaborate with Tribal Nations and the BEC to close active raptor nesting areas to visitation as
necessary to provide for nesting success. This will include, if necessary, the temporary or
permanent closure of any OHV route access to nesting areas, as well as the temporary or
permanent closure of trails and climbing routes where active nests are located or nesting behavior
is observed. Temporary and/or permanent closures will be considered during implementation-level
planning.

Temporary activities within 0.5 mile of nest sites will not occur during the breeding season from January 1 to August 31, unless the
area has been surveyed according to protocol and determined to be unoccupied

Bumping for april

Cory, any luck on a higher resolution map?

Just an update on this - I was talking with the Access Fund folks at Supercrack Buttress the other day and they said that all of Critic's Choice is closed and all of Disappointment Cliffs are closed. The birds are in fact nesting on the right side of Critic's Choice. Cory's deduction from the map was not wrong, but the AF person said that the map itself is wrong. 

Thanks Ross! Bird are hard to predict I suppose. I got the vibe from the stewards this year (well one of them) that they like telling people what to do.

I will email the BLM this week and see if they have updated guidance.

BenGreiner wrote:

Cory, any luck on a higher resolution map?

Added a higher resolution of the map and a PDF download. You can now see in more detail. Still following up with the BLM on rumored closures mentioned above.

May 8, 2025 

BLM updates for climbers protecting raptors in Indian Creek 

MONTICELLO, Utah – Following spring raptor monitoring, BLM biologists have updated climbing access guidance in the Indian Creek area. Six walls have been removed from the raptor nesting avoidance list and are now open to recreation for the remainder of the year. The newly open walls are: Critics Choice, Slug Wall, Sacred Cow, Original Meat Wall, Tenderloins and Broken Tooth.  

At the same time, two walls were added to the avoidance list due to confirmed raptor nesting activity, they are: The Beach and the northern portions of the Disappointment Cliffs. These avoidance areas will remain in effect until August 31st.  

While this list serves as a guide, it does not indicate every avoidance area or encompass all known names of the affected climbing areas. Before recreating, please refer to the Raptor Protection Areas Map below to identify avoidance areas. This update will be posted throughout the Indian Creek corridor. The public is also reminded that there are private land holdings throughout the Indian Creek Corridor. Please respect private landowners’ boundaries and signage.  

From March to late August, raptors and other migratory birds use shallow depressions on ledges, cliffs, and rock walls to build nests—often returning to the same site, year after year. In southeastern Utah, raptors like falcons, eagles, and hawks continue to recover, thanks in part to cooperation from the public, climbing communities, and governmental partners. The BLM coordinates these raptor protection efforts with the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which manages the climbing areas known as Disappointment Cliffs and portions of the Second Meat Wall climbing area.  

For questions regarding climbing routes and avoidance areas please contact BLM-Utah Outdoor Recreation Planner Jeremy Martin in the Monticello Field Office at 435-587-1500.

So rad! I can’t believe for the first time ever they updated us! We climbed at Sacred Cow a few weeks ago and saw a raptor flying around cliffs of insanity. I’ll update the original post with this new information, thanks Justino for the heads up.

The addition of the Northern portion of Disappointment means the whole cliff wasn't originally closed contrary to the interpretation shared by the access fund, on the other hand, it also means that it probably should have been closed.