Hike Mount Chapin, Mount Chiquita, Ypsilon Mountain Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

Mount Chapin, Mount Chiquita, Ypsilon Mountain GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

Mount Chapin, Mount Chiquita, and Ypsilon Mountain are three popular summits within Rocky Mountain National Park. Accessing them requires a long drive on the seasonal dirt Old Fall River Road. The road is in great shape for any vehicle, but you'll likely by going slowly after getting stuck behind a line of cars. The Chapin Pass Trailhead is only a series of pull-outs along the narrow road, so you might have to walk a bit as not to block traffic. Austin and I started along the well-marked trail, quickly reaching a junction and heading right (east). The trail continued along the northern base of Mount Chapin, passing a cute little pond and quickly emerging from treeline. There is a trail to reach Mount Chapin, a somewhat quick detour. The views are nice from the summit, but the next two peaks would end up being even nicer.

We continued along the eastern ridge of Mount Chiquita, the trail somewhat steep and ending with light Class 2. There was no more official trail leading from Chiquita to Ypsilon, but it's obvious where to go. We followed the ridge north, getting light hints of a social trail through the tundra and light Class 2 as we made our way up to Ypsilon Mountain. There were at least two different routes leading to its summit, but all cairns felt useless. Just wander until you reach the high point. On the way back from Ypsilon Mountain, rather than re-ascend Mount Chiquita, we located a cairned route that led around Chiquita's western slope. The socia trail became more difficult to follow, so we left it and headed south until we met with the trail we previously took to ascend Chiquita. We headed back along the trail the way we came.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Mount Chapin

12454 ft

414 rise

Mount Chiquita

13069 ft

283 rise

Ypsilon Mountain

13514 ft

1116 rise

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Chapin Pass Trailhead.

A short hike north leads to a junction.

At the junction, we kept right in order to get to our peaks.

Slight descent through the forest.

View back. The Rocky Mountain National Park Alpine Visitor Center is somewhere in the center.

Mount Chapin comes into view as we exit treeline.

View back, passing a cute little pond.

The trail leads along the northern base of Mount Chapin. Chiquita and Ypsilon are visible right of center.

View back along the northern base of Mount Chapin.

Junction with the side-trail to get to Mount Chapin. Mount Chiquita visible ahead. We'll be returning to this spot after hiking to Chapin.

Heading up to Mount Chapin.

View back down to the saddle of Chapin and Chiquita.

Mount Chapin summit, view toward Mount Chiquita.

Summit of Mount Chapin, view east toward Estes Park.

View back toward Mount Chapin. You can see the trail we came in on right of center.

Pretty steep ascent to Mount Chiquita along a good trail.

View back again.

Close-up toward Mount Chapin.

Almost to Mount Chiquita.

View back the way we came.

The trail sort of ends, but is cairned. We continued through Class 2 up to Mount Chiquita.

Mount Chiquita ahead, Ypsilon Mountain visible on the left.

Mount Chiquita summit view.

Mount Chiquita, view toward Ypsilon Mountain.

There wasn't a trail from Chiquita to Ypsilon, but the ridgeline was easy to follow.

View back toward Mount Chiquita as we ascend to Ypsilon.

Mostly tundra, but later some light Class 2 on our way to Ypsilon Mountain.

Looking back as we ascend to Ypsilon.

Multiple cairned routes lead through the talus, but it doesn't really matter where you go. Just head for the high point.

View along the ridge leading to the high point of Ypsilon Mountain.

Ypsilon Mountain view.

Ypsilon Mountain summit view, north.

Ypsilon Mountain, view toward Fairchild, Hagues, and Mummy.

Ypsilon Mountain, view west.

Summit selfie.

Rather than head back over Mount Chiquita, we located this cairned social trail that wraps around the peak.

View back toward Ypsilon as we wrap around Chiquita. Soon we left the fading social trail and just traversed on easy tundra over to the official trail.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!