Hike Rainbow Mountain via Rainbow Direct Route Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

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Dec 13, 2025 — I decided to take the last quarter of 2025 off from peakbagging nearly completely to focus on other things in life after basically nonstop road trips for the last decade, but I intend to return to regular summit shenanigans in 2026. I want to continue hiking for many years to come, which apparently requires learning about the strange concept called “balance”. Additionally, since my most obscure trip reports heroically earn about two views per year, I’ll be writing up fewer of those going forward. Documenting my past 15,000+ hiking miles has been time-consuming to say the least, and has started to feel a bit like a second unpaid job, but I want to keep adding to my site and that means taking a small step back. Hope you all had a good 2025 in the outdoors and in any/all other endeavors!

Rainbow Wall is the tallest of three notable points that compose this major summit in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Its shorter neighbors, Rainbow Mountain and Rainbow Peak, are similar in height and are often reached in addition to the summit. Rainbow Wall is known to rock climbers for its sheer technical face, and the trio of summit lumps are popular for peakbaggers and desert scramblers because of their various gorgeous scramble routes.

Today I was joining Yossi, Jeremy, and Ron for the semi-technical low-Class 5 route to all three points via the Rainbow Direct Route. On our hike today there were several sections with fixed lines, but the quality of these lines varied and it was a reminder to never fully trust gear you didn’t place yourself. This turned out to be among my favorite ascent routes in Red Rock, and I definitely plan to return to link it with other descent options. I’ve hiked Rainbow Mountain a few times, and if you’re looking for a route with less difficult scrambling than this, you might want to approach via Pine Creek/Gunsight Canyon, or just do the route as an out-and-back via Oak Creek Canyon.

We parked at the Middle Oak Creek Trailhead, located outside the scenic loop, which meant not needing a timed entry permit or day pass. Once we reached the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon, we looked up at the southeast face that houses the Rainbow Direct Route. Craning our necks to see what was to come meant it was definitely “direct”. We noted a shrubby slope that cut through the yellow rock toward the base that would serve as our first goal. We could have stuck to the trail a bit longer and approached it more directly, but we were excited and left the trail a little too early. This meant side-hilling higher up beneath some cliffs, but it wasn’t much of an inconvenience.

We entered the steep slope we noted from below, but what seemed like a “slope” from below was clearly a scramble right from the start. The sustained and engaging scramble begins with immediate Class 3 terrain above Oak Creek Canyon, quickly narrowing into chasms, cracks, and chimneys. The route weaves around tempting side canyons, using multiple handlines to negotiate exposed Class 4 and low Class 5 moves, including steep crack climbs, chimneys, and a committing lip move out of a slot. Above, the difficulty eases slightly into long stretches of Class 2–3 slabs and chutes, with a few final few notable moves before reaching the east ridge of Rainbow Peak. The route-finding is a bit complex up the Rainbow Direct Route, so I’ll let my photos and captions below tell the story better below.

From Rainbow Peak, the traverse onward to Rainbow Mountain was pretty quick, with a Class 3+ section just past the saddle that gave way to more fun scrambling. We took the standard arc route from Rainbow Mountain to Rainbow Wall, a mostly slickrock hike with a couple of short moves.

From the summit of Rainbow Wall, we headed back along the ridgeline and followed cairns to avoid a few rock outcrops along the way. A very heavily-used social trail led off the slickrock and continued down through a pretty drainage to the south and into Oak Creek Canyon.

Oak Creek Canyon is a colorful canyon complete with trickling water on slickrock slopes. Initially the obstacles are Class 2/3 and slabby, but there is a bunch of variety in the scrambling moves. These canyons are choked with boulders, so expect to not get back particularly quickly, despite the low milage. The water starts to fade away and most of the obstacles become more typical rock-hopping and micro-route-finding that is found in the canyons of Red Rock.

Eventually we made it the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon and located a social trail leading out of the drainage and up to the northern bank of the canyon. There are multiple spots to do this, but the faster you find one, the faster you can get away from the boulder-hopping and instead take one of various social trails leading to the official Oak Creek Trail.

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

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Rainbow Peak

6800 ft

80 rise

Rainbow Mountain

6800 ft

200 rise

Rainbow Wall

6924 ft

642 rise

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Starting from the Middle Oak Creek Trailhead. Rainbow Mountain is seen ahead on the right.

Approaching the base of the Rainbow Direct Route. The mouth of Oak Creek seen left. The first goal was to reach the brushy slope seen left of center, the start of the route.

We left the trail a bit early and had to side-hill higher up.

Entering the "slope" mentioned earlier. It was much steeper up-close.

Some Class 3 right from the start. Below you can see the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon.

The slope narrowed progressively into this chasm.

View back down at the route so far, as we scramble out of the chasm.

Above the chasm, it will be tempting to continue through the canyon seen ahead, but the route leads to the right before reaching it.

The canyon mentioned above seen at the top of this photo. We scrambled away from it on Class 3 terrain.

The first handline. Without the line, this was a Class 4 move.

Continuing amongst a jumble of rock, Class 2/3.

The route does not go into the canyon in the center, but instead up to the right through a crack.

A helpful handline up a crack. I'd say this was at least Class 4+ without the line. It had a few awkward moves and was a bit exposed. I was happy to have a fixed rope in this spot.

Continuing up to the chimney seen right of center. There was another handline, but it wasn't necessary. I recommend just staying within the chimney rather than using the face on the left.

View back down the chimney.

At the top of the chimney: Jeremy at the top of it, Yossi at the bottom.

A short slope above the chimney. We scrambled up into the chasm at the top left of this photo.

Class 3 to reach the bottom of the chasm.

I found this chasm to be the most fun section of the route. It became progressively more difficult, but there were always holds and I felt securely stuffed into it.

The chasm narrowed into a chimney.

Seen here is a shot back down the Class 3/4 chimney, just before the ground falls away and we found stemming on either side of the wall to be safest, as well as the most fun, option. There were also plenty of massive holds.

There was a fixed line, which I only felt the need to use at the very top, where Jeremy is seen above. It required a committing pull move over a lip to escape the chimney. Very exposed.

View back just before the lip move to escape the chimney.

The lip move was hard to photograph, but past it was a rest spot before starting up this next set of scrambly slabs.

Continuing up the interesting series of slabs, lots of Class 2/3. The route stays within this chute for a while.

View back down the chute, scrambling up the fun slabs.

Steeper higher up, but still Class 3.

View back down at the steep and relentless scramble.

Class 4 without the rope to escape the chute and reach flat ground above.

The fun was definitely not over. We continued ascending toward the center of this photo, using another slab.

View back down the slabs.

At the top of the slabs, we hung right and scrambled this small Class 4 move.

View back above the Class 4 move above, Mount Wilson seen top left and Oak Creek Canyon below.

The route entered an abruptly narrow canyon.

A rabbit hole to squeeze through.

And another stemming move through a chimney.

View back down above the chimney.

And a final bit of Class 2/3 to reach the east ridge of Rainbow Peak.

On the easy ridge of Rainbow Peak. Rainbow Wall seen on the right.

Looking back as we head along the ridgeline up to Rainbow Peak. Rainbow Peak is just a minor lump.

Past Rainbow Peak, we navigated Class 2 terrain. Here you can see the Class route to gain Rainbow Mountain. The Class 3+ moves are located just behind the little tree, center.

A Class 3+ short chimney move. I remembered this being more difficult, but after plenty of scrambling today it felt trivial.

Past the chimney (blocked by Jeremy) was another short move that shouldn't pose a problem if you've made it this far. You can also skip the chimney move and climb directly from the right in this photo.

View back toward Rainbow Peak as we scramble the last steep bit to Rainbow Mountain.

Rainbow Mountain, on the way to Rainbow Wall.

The rest of these photos were recycled from another one of my Rainbow Mountain trip reports. Along the ridgeline (rather, just to the right of it), headed to the Rainbow Wall summit. Rainbow Mountain and Rainbow Peak seen on the right.

Summit of Rainbow Wall, view down into Juniper Canyon.

Heading west along the ridge from Rainbow Wall, starting our descent.

Avoiding a rock outcrop on the right.

Descending the ridge to a social trail down into Oak Creek Canyon, cairns leading the way.

View up a pretty slickrock descent drainage just before entering Oak Creek Canyon (Class 2).

Within Oak Creek Canyon.

Slick Class 2/2+ obstacles.

Slabby and interesting obstacles.

View back up some of the boulder-hopping stuff.

Continuing to descend. The boulders ease up a bit, but there's still plenty of Class 2/3 fun to be had.

Once the canyon opened up, we looked around for social trail exit options on the left to get up to the northern bank of Oak Creek Canyon.

View back into Oak Creek Canyon's mouth.

We followed the Oak Creek Canyon Trail back to the trailhead.

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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!