Indian Creek, from Monticello

Bears Ears was cut a third time by a proclamation signed 13 July 2026, to about 121,096 acres in two units, effective 11 September 2026. The five nations filed litigation over the reduction. Check the current boundary with the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service before planning around it.

The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service administer it jointly, through the BLM's Monticello Field Office, which is in Monticello, and the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The Bears Ears Commission represented five federally recognized tribes: the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Pueblo of Zuni. The proclamation signed 13 July 2026 disbanded that commission.

Yes. The proclamation signed 13 July 2026 names Newspaper Rock among the objects of historic and scientific interest within the monument, and it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. Because the boundary has changed three times since 2016, confirm the line that applies on the day with the managing agency.

Over 650 carved designs across roughly 200 square feet of Wingate sandstone, which makes it one of the largest, best preserved and most easily reached panels in the Southwest. It sits at about 6,080 feet, roughly twelve miles west of US-191 along UT-211, a hundred feet from a parking lot with a vault toilet. There is no entrance station and no fee. The one rule that matters is not touching it, because skin oils damage the surface permanently.

The pulloff is about 1.9 miles west of Newspaper Rock on UT-211, and the walk is roughly a mile round trip, rated moderate. Unlike Newspaper Rock, the panels here run along the cliff base for something like a quarter of a mile rather than sitting on one face. The route drops to Indian Creek and requires crossing it, which is not always sensible in spring runoff or after a storm. There is no fence, no signage and no toilet.

No, and the Bureau of Land Management says so directly: there are very few routes here for beginners. Indian Creek is a specialist crack climbing destination on Wingate sandstone, where the walls fracture into long uniform vertical cracks and the technique required is particular to that. Supercrack Buttress alone holds more than forty routes, mostly at grades that assume experience. It is a superb place to visit and a poor place to learn.

The Bureau of Land Management asks climbers to wait at least 24 to 48 hours after rain before getting on sandstone here. Wet Wingate is dramatically weaker than dry Wingate, holds break off under load, and the damage is permanent for everybody who follows. In a place whose entire value is the rock itself, waiting out a wet spell is the difference between a climbing area that lasts and one that does not.

The Bureau of Land Management runs three developed campgrounds on the corridor: Hamburger Rock, Superbowl and Creek Pasture. All are 15 dollars a night, first come and first served with a 14 day limit, and each carries a group site taking up to 50 people at 65 dollars. Superbowl is the largest at 32 sites. None of the three has drinking water. Dispersed camping is allowed within 150 feet of designated routes in previously disturbed areas and at least 300 feet from water.

The UT-211 junction is 14 miles north of Monticello on US-191, Newspaper Rock is about another twelve miles west, and the main climbing parking lots sit roughly sixteen miles in from the junction. In practice that is 26 to 32 miles and 35 to 50 minutes from town. There is no fuel, water, shop or mobile coverage anywhere on UT-211, so everything for the day is bought in Monticello before you turn west.