Gold Belt Tour Scenic Byway
Shelf Road Part 1

This is the same rib of granite as the Window Rock wall but it rises on the other side of the road. Notice that the top of the canyon is getting further and further away as I travel south on this road. Still lots of aspen and spruce among the trees so this should still be above 8,000 feet.

I'm sitting here looking at this in my computer and thinking that this would be a good spot for a climbing school. Beginners could start by scaling faces on this side of the road but graduation would require scaling that big wall next to the Window on the other side of the road. I'm sure it would be quite the experience. Most of Shelf Road travels through private property so I don't know if this is on BLM or is privately owned. At one time or another a lot of this countryside was staked and registered as mining claims so the BLM stuff out here is really broken up and scattered.