COVID-19 Climbing Guidelines: The Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest, Muir Valley, and all RRGCC-owned property - which includes Miller Fork Recreational Preserve, Bald Rock Recreational Preserve, and Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve - request that you follow the guidelines outlined on each website if you choose to climb during this time. See links above for more details about each climbing area.

The Bear's Den

Grade Trad Mixed Sport Total
5.11 6 - 45 51
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Directions to The Bear's Den

This wall is on private property. Be respectful. Sign required waivers.
You could wait in line to climb at the Motherlode or get on equally good 5.12s and 5.13s at the adjacent Bear's Den. The Bear's Den is broken into sectors with the Gold Wall and Steep Wall on the left side getting sun for most of the day and the Twelve Wall, Cut Tree Wall, and Project Wall on the right side in the shade. Park in the Motherlode parking area. Hike the Motherlode trail taking the right path as if going to the Undertow Wall side. At the top of the steep mud hill there will be a faint trail that leads to your right. After a few minutes on this trail you will come to the first of several trails angling uphill to the left. This first uphill trail takes you to the leftmost route, Tar Baby, on the Gold Wall. The second trail uphill takes you to Golden Snow Cone. The third trail uphill takes you to Gandee Candy and the last part of the Gold Wall hosting several 5.12s. Continue on the main trail a few more minutes stepping over a drainage gap and look for a trail leading up to the left that takes you to the Steep Wall which hosts numerous 100-foot long quality 5.13s. To get to the right side of the Bear's Den there is a trail angling down to the right directly across from the third trail that angles up to the left. Follow this trail down and step over a stream/drainage and follow a trail going up left on an old logging road. After a minute on this logging road follow the trail up right to the Cut Tree Wall where there is a large tree stump with 3 bolted routes on it. To the left of this wall is the Twelve Wall and to the right is the Project Wall. The routes on the right side of the Bear's Den are good quality but will need some cleaning so bring a brush.

Wall Sun: Sun/Shade



Click the column heads to sort. Hold shift to sort on multiple columns.
Route Spray Name Type Grade Quality User Stars Length Picture

1

 Tar Baby Sport 5.9+
 
 2.78  (51) 40ft

2

 Low Hanging Fruit Sport 5.10d
 
 2.53  (32) 60ft

3

 Psychopomp Sport 5.11b
 
 3.05  (20) 60ft  

4

 Clay City Exit Sport 5.11a
 
 3.61  (44) 65ft

5

 Deep in Dis Bear Trad 5.9+
 
 3.50  (2) 95ft  

5a

 Devil Made me Do It Sport 5.11a
 
 2.80  (5) 70ft  

6

 Bearly Legal Trad 5.8+
 
 3.57  (7) 60ft

7

 Don't Do It Trad 5.2
 
 2.20  (5) 70ft  

8

 Sam's Boy Toy Sport 5.11c
 
 3.78  (23) 70ft

9

 In Red We Trust Sport 5.12b
 
 2.50  (8) 40ft

10

 Wet Willy Trad 5.10a
 
 3.13  (8) 55ft

11

 Pinkalicious Sport 5.11b
 
 3.74  (43) 60ft

12

 Zero Dark Fiddy Sport 5.13a
 
 3.33  (3) 75ft

13

 72 Hour Energy Sport 5.12a
 
 4.24  (33) 70ft

14

 Golden Snow Cone Sport 5.10c
 
 3.49  (65) 55ft

15

 Wild Turkey Crossing Trad 5.6
 
 3.67  (6) 60ft  

16

 Shadow Enhancement Sport 5.11d
 
 3.56  (27) 60ft

17

 Barren Gold Sport 5.12a
 
 4.00  (17) 60ft

18

 Pooh and Piglet Too Sport 5.10d
 
 3.31  (13) 50ft  

19

 Eye of the Tigger Sport 5.12b
 
 5.00  (1) 45ft  

20

 Off the Couch Sport 5.10d
 
 2.59  (22) 60ft

21

 Gandee Candy Sport 5.8
 
 3.48  (40) 65ft

22

 Broke Back Finger Sport 5.12d
 
 3.50  (2) 60ft

23

 Cindy Groms Sport 5.12b
 
 2.60  (5) 65ft  

24

 Godbolt Sport 5.12b
 
 2.50  (2) 65ft  

25

 Inches and Fractions Sport 5.12d
 
 3.00  (1) 65ft  

26

 Itchy and Scratchy Sport 5.12d
 
 100ft  

27

 All That Twitters Sport 5.13a
 
 3.00  (1) 100ft

28

 Rules of Engagement Sport 5.13a
 
 4.75  (16) 100ft

29

 Squirrels Gone Wild Sport 5.13b
 
 4.00  (6) 100ft  

30

 G.I. Joe (Closed Project) Sport 5.13b
 
 100ft  

31

 Room with a View (Open Project) Sport 5.12
 
 100ft  

32

 Routeburglar Sport 5.12a
 
 4.00  (23) 80ft  

33

 Squatter Sport 5.11d
 
 3.14  (14) 80ft

34

 Mooch Sport 5.11b
 
 2.56  (27) 80ft  

35

 C Quest R Sport 5.10b
 
 2.69  (13) 60ft  

36

 Levi Yoder Sport 5.11c
 
 3.00  (2) 60ft  

37

 Rumspringa Sport 5.9-
 
 2.11  (9) 50ft  

38

 Loaded for Bear Sport 5.12b
 
 3.75  (4) 60ft

39

 Bear Belly Sport 5.12b
 
 4.36  (11) 60ft  

40

 Ticks and Beer Sport 5.12c
 
 4.00  (1) 60ft

41

 Unbearable Sport 5.12b
 
 4.20  (5) 60ft  

42

 Two Rons Don't Make a Right Sport 5.11b
 
 3.38  (8) 60ft

42a

 Bearly Jamming Trad 5.10b
 
 3.00  (1) 65ft

43

 Spicer Sport 5.11c
 
 3.71  (7) 65ft

44

 Bromance Sport 5.11d
 
 2.67  (3) 60ft  

45

 Here Comes Palin Sport 5.11c
 
 3.50  (6) 60ft  

46

 Arete Headed Stranger Sport 5.11c
 
 2.80  (5) 80ft  

47

 Bearly There Sport 5.14a
 
 4.00  (1) 60ft  

48

 Ursa Minor Sport 5.11b
 
 3.14  (7) 45ft  

49

 Ursa Major Sport 5.11a
 
 2.75  (4) 50ft  

Comments

22 comments {add your own comments}
1
Cromper said on December 13th, 2012
Hell ya! Hope this crag gets some traffic! Killer climbs, thanks to all who put in a bunch of effort there!
2
Anonymous said on December 13th, 2012
Kyle is right... its been a while since these routes were bolted so the trails and routes might need a little cleaning. There are a lot of good routes in here and might be a nice alternative to warm up here for the Lode.
3
pigsteak said on December 14th, 2012
which side gets morning sun?
4
kafish2 said on December 14th, 2012
I am not sure about morning sun on the right side of the den, but the left side, routes 13-30, gets sun most of the day. I do not think the Pocket Wall, routes 8-12, get any sun. As for the other parts of the right side, routes 1-7 perhaps Andrew has some advice.
5
krampus said on February 28th, 2013
There is a rout to the imidiate right of rules of engagement with not red tag and no static rope. It is not room with a view. Does anyone know what this rout is?
6
Corona said on May 14th, 2013
I suppose I should mention that if you visit the Bear's Den, you will invariably find ticks on you later. Don't know why they like it back there so much.
7
mike_anderson said on July 23rd, 2013
I'm not sure how to add new routes, so here goes. The route just right of "Rules of Engagement" is called "Squirrels Gone Wild, 13b", FA by me March 2012. A flying squirrel flew out of a pod in the rock on the FA...that was cool.
8
dustonian said on July 23rd, 2013
haha good name Mike. Try the "submit a route" link from the Tools menu above.
9
Anonymous said on July 25th, 2013
Adding routes is actually not hard at all when you have a fixed line already set up
10
pigsteak said on October 28th, 2013
the route just right of "rules of engagement" does have a rope hanging from the chains and thru 3-4 draws down...hmmmmm....
11
dustonian said on April 3rd, 2014
Right side of the holler could use some major trail love if anyone's into that kinda thing
12
Anonymous said on May 5th, 2015
You didn't have a wrench? Why didn't you just tighten it instead of expecting someone else to do it? Wait, I meant..... You didn't have a shovel? Why didn't you just get some friends and plan a trail day?
13
Rob Smith said on November 2nd, 2015
Re-established the trail to Cut Tree Wall today (wall on right side across from Steep Wall (i.e. Rules of Engagement wall). To get there go two minutes past trail leading up to Gold Wall (i.e. Golden Snow Cone wall), then take trail down an old logging road. Step over stream/drainage and follow trail going up left on another logging road. After a minute on this logging road follow the trail up right to the cliff where there is a large tree stump with 3 bolted routes on it. These routes are Here Comes Palin, Bromance, and Spicer (from right to left. Start of the crag is to the right and there are more routes left of the Cut Tree Wall. Only 5 minutes to this wall from main Bear's Den trail.
14
kafish2 said on November 5th, 2015
since there is no option for adding routes to the Bears den... There are three routes between broke back finger and itchy and scratchy. The right most route of these three is Inches and Fractions, 12c/d bolted by Andrew Wheatley and FA by Kyle Fisher. It's a nice bouldery line and the rock is great after the sandy ledge at the start. Does anyone have info on the two routes left of this? One shares a first bolt with inches and fractions.
15
Anonymous said on November 5th, 2015
Route that shares the start with Inches is abandoned project (probably fine if someone wants to do it - maybe ask Andrew), next route left is 12- bolted by Mike and Andrew (really good, but often wet). I did it a few weeks ago with Andrew's permission (not sure if it was FA). Also I don't know if it has a name yet.
16
pumpout2004 said on November 5th, 2015
Previous comment was me btw.
17
JR said on November 9th, 2015
Preston Godbolt did the middle one. Godbolt seems like a good name for it. 12b. A guy named Jeremy bolted it.
18
lena_chita said on October 25th, 2018
Anyone knows the info on the two routes between the Tar baby and the Low-Hanging Fruit? Looked to be low-10, maybe?
19
Anonymous said on October 25th, 2018
You’ll think they’re reachy
20
lena_chita said on October 25th, 2018
I still need to know, so I can use specific route names when complaining about the reach.
21
JeffCastro said on October 11th, 2020
There are two routes between Tar baby and low hanging fruit that were bolted with threaded rod. They currently both have all of their hangers removed. Anyone know the story behind this?
22
Anonymous said on October 12th, 2020
Bolted with wedge bolts, and poorly at that. Hangers pulled for safety. No idea who did it. In need of a rebolt and a retro FA if you're interested.