JOE’S VALLEY, UTAH

• On Mountain Project: link

One of my favorite places in the world. I absolutely love this place.

Joe’s valley is in Central Utah, near the towns of Orangeville and Castle Rock, Utah. Chyah Chyah and I spent about a month here in 2023.

It’s a high-altitude desert filled with sandstone boulders and bonsai-esque alpine pines. It’s also very vanlife-friendly, with tons of pulloffs in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. It’s very beginner-friendly, with easy approaches, soft grades 🥹 good for the ego, good/safe landings, and generally lots of stuff in the 10 foot range. No scary bishop high-balls here!

The local town has generally embraced the influx of boulderers over the years. The local hangout for climbers is a grocery store called Food Ranch. Kayla who works there is super nice. I printed and mailed my 2022 taxes from there. You can take a shower there if needed for 5 dollars, or go down the street to a little concrete structure + welcome park where they have fantastic coin-operated showers.

So, yeah! This place is set up perfectly for the vanlife’ing boulderer.

Some pics:

Angler v2

Various boulders

Contemplating Pocket Rocket v6, which i didn’t send

Donuts from Food Ranch

This one is Streaked v7. Hard af. My first day climbing in Joe’s, I was trying this without warming up. The first move is a very aggressive right heel hook. I was pulling hard and felt a zipping sensation go up my right hamstring followed by a popping sensation. Totally yoinked my hamstring. I haven’t been the same since. No longer an ambi-hooker.

Eurosize v5 There’s a local tribe of beer drinking traditional american-style boulder dirtbags. They’re super nice.