Liberty Cap Trail

Liberty Cap Trail is a long-distance hike inside Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, offering two different outings depending on which trailhead you use. One approach starts at Wildwood Drive (steeper climbing off the valley floor), while the other starts from the mesa top near Rim Rock Drive for a less punishing profile before dropping back toward Liberty Cap.

From the valley-floor access, expect a strenuous ascent up to the Liberty Cap area. The climb is described as steep for about the first 2 miles, building from the Grand Valley floor to the rock formation.

Later in the hike, the trail shifts into gentler mesa travel across Monument Mesa, then finishes with the route that leads you to Liberty Cap. The mesa portion is characterized by pinyon-juniper forest and sagebrush flats.

If you start from the mesa-top side, you generally get a flatter traverse across Monument Mesa before the route begins its final climb toward Liberty Cap. This is the same set of trails used to reach the formation from different ends.

Route length commonly comes out to a moderate day hike: the valley-floor out-and-back is around 3.3 miles with about 1,120 feet of gain and typically takes 2 to 2.5 hours. The full-length outing described as running from Rim Rock Drive out to Liberty Cap and back is about 13.4 miles round-trip with roughly 2,014 feet of gain.

Trail surface is primarily ground/singletrack through the Monument Mesa terrain. Route character includes arid, sandy trail sections and boulder-strewn wash climbing when you approach the cliff/mesa transition segments.

Near the summit area, there’s an established way to get to the top of Liberty Cap that uses old metal poles/rungs anchored in rock on the south side of the feature, followed by a short scramble at the top.

More information: Visitor information, Hike Ute Canyon and Upper Liberty Cap Loop - Stav is Lost, Liberty Cap Trail · Featured Route - Colorado Trail Explorer