Rio Grande Pyramid

Route: Rincon La Vaca up, Opal Skyline down
Posted On: 6/24/2026, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Great day out on the ridge!! Me and a buddy hit all 5 of the 13ers along it, me in a day from Thirtymile Campground and him from camp at the junction with Opal Skyline trail. Summer conditions on all trails and no moose unfortunately.
RLV is definitely tamer of an approach than Skyline and way easier route finding too. Finding Skyline trail on the way down from Fool's Pyramid isn't that bad, just follow the grassy ridge due east and then descend scree until you hit it.
To find Skyline from the trail junction on the way up, head direct hiker's right of the rock cairn with the stick in the middle until you hit a faint game trail. Pay attention as to not lose it on the way up. Would be even harder in the dark, I would say just take RLV at that point lol. 

Route: Up Skyline Opal/Down CDT
Posted On: 6/7/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Started from the 30 Mile Campground around 4:00AM on Saturday morning. Watch for the intersection to the Skyline Opal trail after crossing Weminche Creek @ 5 miles, it's almost nonexistent, though the trail itself is actually pretty decent. The crux of the day was thrashing through the willows before reaching the base of RGP. From the base, it took me about 30 minutes to finish the east ridge, which I'd call class 2+. Probably the most beautiful summit I've ever had the pleasure to stand on. Ridiculous views on this ultra clear day of the Chicago Basin, Trinities, Grenadiers, Wilsons, Sneffels, Jones Group, Half, Handies, Redcloud/Sunshine, Unc/Wetterhorn/Matterhorn and even the La Platas. I brought micro spikes, but didn't end up touching snow the entire day, even on the CDT on the way down. Didn't see a soul the entire day. Easily one of my top 5 of the Centennials; absolutely breathe-taking. 22.13 miles / 4,898' gain / 9 hours, 28 minutes 

Route: Opal Skyline
Posted On: 8/26/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: Started this one at 1am. The trail is easy to follow/relatively flat until you turn off for the skyline trail. While the skyline trail was fairly worn there were definitely places we got lost and unfortunately one of those spots was in the willows. It’s a beautiful trail and has great views in the daytime just a bit harder to navigate in the dark and you’re guaranteed to get wet if the willows are holding dew. The skyline trail will pretty much lead you to the saddle of RGP where you will navigate up some loose scree/dirt then the final push to the summit is a bit more scrambly that you could make class 3 if you wanted ( I felt the route was dif class 2). Stayed to the left ascending the final pitch as my hiking partner said that he read it was a little less loose. Oh, and there are a couple false summits on the final approach ( I think it was 2-3). We ended up summiting around 7:30 which included a longer break before the willows then getting lost in the willows. The summit had some great views. We were back at our cars around 1ish and clocked 22 miles and 4,500’ ish of gain. 

Route: Opal Skyline Up / CDT Down
Posted On: 8/11/2025, By: LivingOnTheEdge
Info: There is indeed no sign for Opal/Skyline trail but there is a cairn with a large pole in it at the turn off. Turn right and walk maybe 20 feet and you will immediately see a small cairn in the grass marking the start of the trail. Lots of downed trees but other than that, pretty solid. Of note, there is basically no water on the Skyline trail to the top of RGP. Was hoping to filter at the small lake shown on most maps but it was completely dried up. There was a small trickle in the willows but it was basically just mud. TONS of water options on the CDT trail. Also of note, I linked up Window Peak by dropping down off the shoulder and around the cliffs at 13120'. It was okay for a bit but heinous San Juan choss for a lot more. In retrospect, it may have been faster to just plunge-step the scree back down to the lower shoulder and then back to Opal Skyline and take that to Opal lake and up to get to Window. Likely similar time, but certainly more pleasant doing that vs what I tried. Car to car time 7:40 including a long break at Opal to filter and chug water. Moving time 5:40. 24.5 miles / 6700' feet of gain. Did it as a day trip from Denver. Not necessarily recommended but possible. 

Route: Up Opal Skyline / Down CDT
Posted On: 6/28/2025, By: Thmpsn_
Info: 100% summer conditions! Opal Skyline has some downed trees and a couple sections of willowbashing, but all good. Lots of fun 

Route: Up Opal Skyline trail, down CDT
Posted On: 6/15/2025, By: cloudkicker
Info: Dayhiked RGP from the thirty mile CG backpackers parking area yesterday. Opal Skyline trail is in full summer conditions. Pro tip: Gaia app’s free version basemap shows the Opal Skyline trail which makes the deadfall section less of a maze. I found the trail quickly on the other side and overall was able to follow Opal Skyline 99% of the way.

I spent 5-10min on snow after Opal Skyline to the summit, everything is either avoidable or easy low angle. Brought spikes, did not use. No summit register found on top.

Coming down, the CDT had a few more snow crossings including a snow bridge over a rushing creek at 11,850ft which will probably collapse in a week or so if this heat keeps doing its thing.

Bugs are awake and thriving between TH and treeline. They are small and not swarming yet but definitely enough to need anti bug measures. 

Route: CDT
Posted On: 9/23/2024, By: gcook33
Info: 22.5 RT, ~5000 elevation. Cruiser miles for the first 9.5 miles. Muddy in spots but easy otherwise. At that point you veer off up into the basin with willows and link up with the Skyline/Opal Lake trail after .5 miles roughly. Snow starts at 11.5k and theres consistent amount (3-5in.) up to the summit. Rocks were definitely slick up high but to be expected. Fall colors were some of the best Ive ever seen in Colorado. Wonderful day trip. 

Route: 30 Mile Trailhead
Posted On: 7/6/2024, By: Ssgustafson
Info: I departed the 30 Mile Campground and hit the Weminuche trail at 230AM. Arrived at the Skyline / Rincon la Vaca (RLV) junction at 430AM and decided to take the long way since it was still dark and I was wary of navigating Skyline in the dark. The RLV, like the Weminuche trail, is in excellent condition and I made good time up to the cross-over up to the Skyline trail. There is discernable use trail leading up a steep incline at the start of the crossover, but it fades quickly and its a choose your own adventure after that. I veered too far to hikers left into the basin before correcting right to the shortest path to join the upper trail at about 12.2k'. Staying hiker's right definitely minimizes time in the willows. From there, the trail to the summit was easy to follow and I summitted at 8AM. On the descent I opted for the Skyline trail and found it to be straightforward and easy enough to follow. There was a well established path through the long willows section which thankfully ended up being no big deal. There was some deadfall to deal with in the subsequent forest section, but nothing too troublesome. The descent took just over 4 hours. The Skyline trail is pretty faint for ~100 yards or so at the Weminuche junction, but if you're ascending via that route and have a GPS track to initially guide you, the trail will quickly become apparent. Overall, I clocked the RLV route at ~11.1 miles, whereas the return via the Skyline was ~9.9 miles. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/13/2024, By: ndomke
Info: Nearly summer conditions on Rio Grande Pyramid. Started from 30 Mile Campground and took the East slopes up RGP. There were a few small patches of snow, but none of them were steep or required traction. I added the Window and returned on the CDT back to Weminuche pass. 22.75 miles and 5,500 feet of elevation. 

Route: Standard
Posted On: 7/5/2023, By: eskermo
Info: Took Weminuche Trail to Skyline/Opal Lake Trail and up standard route. Plenty of water running in Weminuche Creek, then just enough of a snowmelt trickle to filter a short ways before the RGP turn off.

I chatted with a solo hiker that climbed RGP the day prior. He could not find Skyline Trail on his way up but it was easy enough to follow down, so he added another cairn and wrote "Skyline" on a piece of wood at the top of Weminuche Pass. There is no obvious trail at the start but if you look uphill, stay on climbers right side of the meadow, you will pick up the worn trail after about 200 feet. Deadfall exists but is not too awful, even with a heavy pack. Plenty of game trails spur off Skyline trail gaining no elevation- don't get fooled into these like me ;)

Nice camp site at 11,400' off the Skyline Trail I made home for the night. Appeared to be one more decent camping spot around 11,800' off the trail, not much after that. Finding a site safe from beatle kill trees was tricky but possible. Snow drifts near camp meant ravenous mosquitos at dinner time. I would not have continued above Wemi pass if the solo hiker had not reported being able to fill up in a small trickle farther up the trail. Willows were not as bad as some report, but one did rip my favorite sun shirt :(

RGP Turnoff from Skyline Trail is obvious enough, but is quickly obscured by snow down low. I picked my way due west up drier, steeper slopes managing to avoid all but a few short snow crossings. Did not bring traction and was fine. The final steep 700' climb was dry and not as loose as it is hyped up to. Helmet territory IMO. Could not find a summit register.

Road to Thirtymile was in great shape and plenty of parking at the backpacker lot.

~20.6 miles, 5,300' roundtrip (added on Fools Pyramid after RGP) 

Route: East face
Posted On: 5/1/2023, By: dcruz654
Info: Gate is still closed so expect an extra 5 miles each way. Traversing across/above the reservoir was probably the single worst mile of skining I have ever done.
Camped around 10300. I was feeling very sluggish after hauling that much weight 10 miles the day before, so I took about 6 hours to summit RGP. Wind was howling all morning from the north east. Skiing was pretty bad, I dropped after noon and the face never softened. Skiers right was firm, skiers left looked softer but also slightly wind deposited. I tested some of the deposited snow up high and ended up chosing the safer, albeit shittier skiing, option.

Skied all the way to the base of Fool's sw ridge, quick climb up that. Snow was a lot better off of Fool's, but I didn't want to get sucked into the flat area below the peak so I traversed a lot to the right while heading down. Not too bad, and much quicker heading down the wem creek drainage back to camp. Don't judge my terrible snowboard turns :/

Advice, take a bicycle for the road. That shit sucked.
Or better yet, wait until the gate is open and there is no snow just above the Rio Grande Reservoir. It's really not worth the effort/struggle. And there looks to be plenty of snow up high. 

Route: Thirty mile
Posted On: 8/13/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: Attempted the FKT yesterday. Was on pace until I blew up around mile 17.

3:43 ascent / 8:04 RT

Stats came out to 21mi / 5k gain RT using the skyline trail.

Ran into a momma moose and cub in the willows. Stay alert around there.

No flowing water above Wemi Pass. Only the small lake a bit off the trail in the willows above. 

Route: Wemi to Skyline Trail
Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Daytripped RGP via Weminuche and Skyline /Opal Lake Trail. Weminuche Trail in good shape. Skyline trail also surprisingly in good shape and would highly recommend for the approach.

Start of the trail took a couple minutes to find in the dark but after that was solid for the vast majority and had no problems following it in the dark. There is a blowdown section a few miles up that does obscure the trail but I found it pretty easy to relocate. All in all it really obscures the trail for about 20 yards or so - if you just keep heading in the direction you were going you will find it.

At the willows, trail is solid the entire way, weaving through the willows for almost a mile. One quick section as you descend to Opal Lake required walking around a 20 foot section. Wear pants since it's tight and they will rub against you, but zero bashing.

From there some scree and then some quasi loose talus to the summit. Did not find a register. Saw nobody else up there or in the area save for one other guy hiking the Skyline trail on my way down.

I registered 19.5 miles, took me around 9.5 hours. Amazing peak and a special place. Will upload my GPX to the library, not a lot of them in there dedicated to this route. 

Route: Weminuche
Posted On: 6/1/2022, By: nickm
Info: RGP, 13248, 13261, Simpson Mtn.
Full summer conditions, no snow!
Started at Thirtymile Campground. I took the Weminuche Trail to the CDT and ended up bushwhacking my way thru willows to get to where I could see the trail below RGP. If I had to do it over I would strongly consider the Skyline Trail instead of the CDT. The CDT would make sense if you were looking to tag Window, or 13,017 first. I'm sure there are some thoughts on that? From RGP it is an easy walk up 13,248. From 13,248 over to 13,261 I bypassed the nasty looking hump to the south and regained the ridge. It was easier than it looked. After dropping off of 13,261 I enjoyed the easy tundra stroll over to Simpson Mtn. After Simpson I continued to the next hump and followed the ridge back toward the Weminuche Trail. Once I entered the MAZE of deadfall I aimed for the drainage to the right of a visible tree covered hump. It was nice finding a water source to refill. I followed the drainage back to the Weminuche. It took a little over 13 hours. 

Route: Rio Grande Super Slam
Posted On: 5/22/2022, By: Geckser
Info: Perfect day on Rio Grande Pyramid with near summer conditions. The snow that fell on Friday night was largely gone making for easy travel. A little wind and overcast skies but not enough to provide significant resistance.

We managed to tag RGP's 4 13er brothers in a very long 9 hour 15 minute day. The ridge between all these peaks was quite dry.

Some downed trees from this winter but nothing shocking. A couple persistent snow patches but they were easily traversed or avoided. Flows in rivers, etc still high but probably not for long due to the strong meltout.

Get bent Tad.