Hueco Tanks Mushroom Boulder Closed

Last week I spent some time in Hueco Tanks for a bouldering trip. I was fortunate to spend some time on North Mountain at the Mushroom Boulder. I say 'fortunate' because halfway through the trip the park closed Mushroom Boulder indefinitely to all activities (including bouldering). I didn't have enough time to project Mushroom Roof, but I did enjoy the climb before the restriction. Often touted as the best boulder in North America, Mushroom Boulder is certainly a destination in and of itself with the number of varied climb on all sides. I am happy that I got to see my friends finish their projects of Mushroom Tea and Mushroom Roof and I can only hope the boulder is open to climbing in the future.

The boulder was closed because foot traffic and crash pads had cause a noticable amount of damage to the soil and plant life surrounding the boulder. In order to protect the vegetation and cultural deposits underneath Mushroom Roof the boulder had to be closed. This is certainly an understandable situation that we have to respect as climbers, but it is certainly tough to lose some of the classic climbs that existed on that boulder.

Mushroom Boulder Links:
Mountain Project page on Mushroom Boulder
Flickr Search of Mushroom Boulder
Google Images Search of Mushroom Boulder
Google Search of Mushroom Boulder

Links regarding closure: [EDIT 1/10/2008]
http://www.rockandice.com/inthemag.php?id=104&type=onlinenews
http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/news/200801/mushroom-boulder-at-hueco-tanks-closed.asp
http://www.accessfund.org/display/page/PR/87
http://www.seclimbers.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=91693
http://climbingvideos.blogspot.com/2008/01/huecos-mushroom-boulder-closed-for-good.html