Hike Rainbow Wall via Pine Creek and Oak Creek Loop Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

May 09, 2022 — Rainbow Wall is the highest point of three named "Rainbow" summits in its vicinity. Years ago I hiked to Rainbow Wall along with Rainbow Peak and Rainbow Mountain via Oak Creek Canyon as an out-and-back. I was hoping to revisit the area, but form a loop instead. This route was the result, a more contrived route that first visits Terrace Canyon and then uses a fun Class 3 route-finding opportunity to get to the summit of Rainbow Wall from the north. I then would descend using Oak Creek Canyon like I did previously. Rainbow Wall is known more to rock climbers for being a world-class vertical face, while Rainbow Peak is better known to hikers due to its interesting non-technical scramble route. If you're looking to get all three Rainbow summits, refer to my other trip report since this hike only gets to Rainbow Wall (the high point). I highly recommend doing this loop rather than just doing Rainbow as an out-and-back, though.

I started from outside Red Rock Canyon in order to skip the slow and lengthy scenic drive and hiked in using an unlabeled trail, but you could instead cut off a couple of miles by parking at the Oak Creek Trailhead within the park here (36.110986, -115.466129). From this spot, I took the Arnight Trail to the Knoll Trail, which then merged with the Pine Creek Trail. After a short hike along the official trail, many social trails seem to leave the main trail and eventually the main trail is indiscernable. I ended up just dropping into the Pine Creek drainage and started the typical Class 2/3 boulder-hopping found in the Red Rock canyons. There's a bunch of cool moves to get over or around boulders, including a rabbit hole scramble, avoiding small water pools, etc. All is fun, but certainly not the place to be if you're trying to move quickly.

My first destination would be Gunsight Canyon, a minor spur of Terrace Canyon, which is a small drainage that runs into South - South Pine Creek Canyon. As you can tell from the naming, the canyon system is complex out here. I'd been here multiple times before because it's an incredibly cool feature of slick sandstone with step-like terraces that's worth revisiting. To get here, I keep left at all junctions within Pine Creek. The boulder-hopping slowly subsided as I got higher up Pine Creek, but the brush encroached a bit more. Fortunately, enough people travel through this way that there are cairns marking the easiest way to avoid the brushiest stuff. Now at the mouth of Gunsight Canyon, I started up. The route involves some Class 2/2+ moves to overcome the terrace-like formations within, but the slick nature of the drainage may be a bit unnerving once a bit higher up and the slope angle becomes slightly more severe. A single unexposed Class 3 move within a depression in the center of the drainage leads to higher ground and to the nicest views back into Gunsight Canyon. The route becomes a little more convoluted here since the drainage opens up into a slope with some minor brush. There are cairns leading up the slope, but my advice is to just locate the path of least resistance to gain the ridge above. It's straightforward enough to keep this steep slope ascent Class 2.

I emerged at the notch separating Gunsight Notch Peak and Rainbow Wall, a nice feature that forms an alternative, cool Class 3/3+ route to reach from the east via Juniper Canyon (a much more efficient alternative to the Gunsight Canyon route I had just completed). I headed up the Class 2+ short detour to Gunsight Notch Peak and then returned to Gunsight Notch. From here I could start the trip up to Rainbow Wall. It will be tempting to head directly south, but the terrain gets significantly steeper from here and cairns mark a route on the right that, rather than ascend initially, traverses to the southwest in order to wrap around a significant wall. The traverse includes some eposed Class 2 on a ledge, but there are plenty of holds and the ledge is wide enough to not be too daunting. Past the short traverse, the route wraps around and heads back east, ascending a steep Class 2 slab in order to get to higher ground. Now a much longer traverse begins. It took me along the base of a sheer wall beneath Rainbow Wall's northern face, barely gaining or losing any elevation. Miraculously, a nice wide ledge system leads all the way around the cliffs, guided by cairns. There were a couple of higher-angled sections along the way, and maybe a Class 2+/3 move required to overcome one steeper section. Toward the end of the traverse the route becomes a bit less clear. The ledge opens up more into a slope with sporadic minor cliff bands. It doesn't seem to matter all that much where you go, since I encountered at last two cairned routes. The idea here is to get around the last bit of fading sheer cliff face.

Once past the traverse, the views opened up and I could see the west ridge of Rainbow Wall. Cairns didn't lead me directly to it though, instead pointing up a steep slope section on the left and away from the expansive view. It seemed to lead to a dead-end. However, a fun Class 3 crack materialized in the rock ahead and continued to more excellent Class 3 scrambling on fun rock. This fun scramable section continued to a slab and then up to much more tame ground. A Class 2 slope got me up to the ridgeline from here.

The route to Rainbow Wall once along the ridgeline was overall straightforward. I recommend keeping just right of the crest to avoid drop-offs and instead hike on bright maroon-colored slickrock. A Class 2/3 move along the way makes way for access to the summit. The views down the actual wall of Rainbow Wall are pretty dizzying. You can also see Rainbow Peak and Rainbow Mountain just to the south.

From the summit of Rainbow Wall, I backtracked along the ridgeline and followed cairns to avoid a few rock outcrops along the way. Eventually a very heavily-used social trail popped in once I left the slickrock and was now on dirt. The trail led just south of the ridgeline and then continued through a pretty drainage (Class 2) and into Oak Creek Canyon.

Oak Creek Canyon is a delighfully colorful canyon complete with trickling water on slickrock slopes. Initially the obstacles are slabby in nature, slippery rock with small holds to stop from sliding too fast providing some fun (Class 2/2+). The water starts to fade away and most of the obstacles become more typical rock-hopping and micro-route-finding through the drainage. It was more or less a repeat of the ascent earlier in the day through Pine Creek Canyon.

Eventually I made it the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon and I kept my eyes peeled for 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. I took the Oak Creek Trail back to trailhead.