Deep Cut Guide

Shirt Tail Peak

20 routes · sandstone (Fountain Formation) · 7,281 ft

Help locate these routes: survey the wall

What's here

5.5 to 5.12, mostly around 5.10.

  1. 1 5.5
  2. 1 5.6
  3. 2 5.8
  4. 5 5.9
  5. 6 5.10
  6. 3 5.11
  7. 2 5.12

Counted from the 20 climbs here that carry a grade. Shown only where there are at least 5 of them — below that the shape is noise.

How well located

Position on wall known 20 

No route here has its own point yet. The map pin is the crag. At the wall? Survey it: 30 seconds per route.

The order of the climbs along this wall is known from the open catalogue, so a few surveys go a long way: standing at Can't Find My Way Home, Serrated Jam Crack, Future Primitive (3 climbs, about 90 seconds) would place up to 17 more climbs between them. Survey the wall →

“Up to” because the estimate between two surveyed routes is only used when they turn out to be close enough together on the ground.

The guidebook for this area

Eldorado Canyon: A Climbing Guide - Steve Levin - 4th ed. - 2024 every crag it covers

From the publisherBookshop.org

Bookshop.org links are affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop.org gives its profits to independent bookshops.

The book has the topos, the descriptions and the local knowledge this page can't. Buying it helps support the people who know the crag best.

Rock, from the geologic map

Fountain Formation. Paleozoic, about 320 to 295 million years old.

Reddish-brown arkosic conglomerate and pebbly sandstone containing thin layers of dark reddish-brown shales. Forms red spines and monuments at Red Rocks and Roxborough Parks and flatirons west and southwest of Boulder. Thickness 512 to 610 m.

This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:100,000 sheet (Trimble and others, 2003, U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-856-H). The point can be a few hundred metres from the rock, a cliff often stands on the line between two units, and at that scale a line on the map is about 100 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. The rock named at the top of this page comes from the public geology of this area; this card is the map's answer. Every crag on this unit: Fountain Formation. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.

On the map since 1899

The USGS has mapped this ground since 1899. 31 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.

Thumbnail of the 1899 USGS sheet covering Shirt Tail Peak
USGS 1:125000-scale Quadrangle for West Denver, CO 1899 · U.S. Geological Survey · 1899 · 1:125,000 sheet
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.

Public domain, U.S. Geological Survey. The sheet shows the ground as the survey found it then, which is why a trail or road you know may be missing. Every sheet over this point, 1899 to 1983: USGS topoView.

In print since 1877

  • 1877 Geologic Map of Colorado (Hayden), high-resolution scan · F. V. Hayden; scan by the Colorado Geological Survey · 1877

    The whole-state sheet of the 1877 atlas, scanned at full resolution by the state survey and free to download.

    Colorado Geological Survey (publication HM-01-04) · Public domain · read it

  • Geological and geographical atlas of Colorado and portions of adjacent territory · F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories · 1877

    The first geology anyone drew of this ground. Hayden's survey mapped the state in the 1870s; these are the sheets, with the rock units coloured as they understood them then.

    Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it

  • Trail and Timberline, volume 2 (1918) · Colorado Mountain Club · 1918

    The Colorado Mountain Club's own magazine in its sixth year, with the club's outings and ascents as its members wrote them up at the time.

    Internet Archive (Brigham Young University copy) · Public domain · read it

Free to read: public domain or government work. About Boulder as a whole, not this wall. More in the reading room.

From the archives

Photographs of this area held by the Library of Congress, oldest first. Every one carries the Library's own "no known restrictions on publication"; anything else is left out.

Boulder, Colorado · Detroit Photographic Co. · 1900 · photochrom
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Boulder Falls, Boulder Canyon, Colorado · 1903 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Chautauqua Grounds, Boulder, Colorado · 1903 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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The perfect tree, Boulder Canon, Colo. · 1906 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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South Boulder Valley, Colorado · 1907 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Birds eye view of Boulder, Co. · Haines Photo Co. (Conneaut, Ohio) · 1908
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Boulder, nestling between mountain and plain, Colorado · 1908 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Overlooking the little city of Boulder, Colorado · 1908 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · found by place name, not yet checked
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A peep at Boulder, Colorado · 1909 · stereograph
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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Boulder Park, Colo. "Moffat Road" · 1909 · postcard
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Public domain · the record · indexed to this place by the archive
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2 more at the Library of Congress.

Photographs near this crag

Taken within 1.5 km of this crag's map point and published under a licence that lets us show them, from Wikimedia Commons. The coordinates say where the camera was, not what it was pointed at, so some of these will be the creek or the trail rather than the rock.

South Boulder Creek (Colorado) · Jeffrey Beall · 2014 · 201 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Eldorado Canyon State Park · Jeffrey Beall · 2014 · 758 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Crags Hotel ruins, Boulder County, CO, framework structure at Guest Room Building 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 922 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Crags Hotel ruins, Boulder County, CO, retaining wall near Clubhouse for the Denver Auto Club 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 923 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Crags Hotel ruins, Boulder County, CO, corner structure at Guest Room Building 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 934 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Welcome to the Crags Hotel, 1908-1912, Boulder County, CO info board 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 936 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Crags Hotel ruins, Boulder County, CO, walkway towards fountain remains 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 951 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Crags Hotel ruins, Boulder County, CO, retaining wall near Guest Room Building 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 980 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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DJI 0245a--Stereo Photo 3D (50976750403) · relaxednow · 2021 · 427 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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DJI 0249a--Stereo Photo 3D (50976747458) · relaxednow · 2021 · 505 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Pseudotsuga glauca Eldorado Canyon · Jimmy Thomas from Grand Junction · 2009 · 220 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Eldorado Canyon State Park, Ranger Station & Visitor Center, propane or gas grills only, signs & building 2024-09-21 · Xnatedawgx · 2024 · 730 m from the crag's map point
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · the record · placed by its coordinates
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1 more on Commons.

Routes

Also within 3 km

Straight line between the two crags' map points, each of which can be some way from its rock. For when this wall is full, or the sun has found it.

Photos from climbers

No photos here yet. If you're at the crag, yours would be the first.

Pick a photo from your camera roll rather than taking one here: a picture taken inside a browser usually has no location saved in it, and we check that the photo was taken at this crag before publishing it. Photos of guidebook pages and topos are refused — they're the author's work. By sending one you're letting us publish it.

Nobody reviews these before they appear, so anyone can report one and it's hidden straight away — including you, if you change your mind, and including a photographer who finds their own picture here.

Taken at the crag by climbers and published as they sent them. Each one's own location had to be within 0.5 km of this crag before we accepted it. See something that shouldn't be here? Use Report this photo under it and it's hidden at once. Anything else, write to us.

Sun today
sun 09:40-16:20
Wall faces SW (USGS elevation). Shade from the surrounding terrain is counted.
Open sky in most directions.
Rain & forecast
0 mm of rain in the last 48 hours.
11-11 58°/44° · 0.0 mm · 17 mph · pm storms 0% 11-12 57°/44° · 0.0 mm · 10 mph · pm storms 0% 11-13 56°/42° · 0.0 mm · 8 mph · pm storms 0%
Open-Meteo, fetched 2026-11-11 18:40 UTC

Conditions reported

Nothing reported recently.

Report what you see

Reports are dated and fade on their own: wet rock after 3 days, a bad bolt after a year. No names, no text.

Access & safety

Emergency: call 911. Read out your location: Works without signal. If GPS fails, this crag's approximate map point is 39.93429 N, 105.28837 W (Shirt Tail Peak). That point can be off by hundreds of metres, so say so.

The map point for this crag is on land managed by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (state), in Eldorado Canyon State Park. It lies inside state park.

The boundary is close. Land managed by Boulder County Parks & Open Space or City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks comes within 250 m of this point, and the point is not the rock — the wall itself may be on the other side of the line. Check which before you rely on either one's rules.

Land manager from USGS PAD-US (public domain), read 2026-09-29. It is the manager of the crag's map point, which can be a long way from the wall. What you may do on the rock is the manager's to say, not ours.

Managed by
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (Eldorado Canyon State Park)
Fees
$10-12/vehicle (CO plate), $15-17 (out of state), $4/person on foot or bike. Annual vehicle pass $80, family $120, Aspen Leaf (64+) $70.
Reservations
Timed-entry vehicle reservation required Saturdays, Sundays and summer holidays, May 1-Oct 1 (cpwshop.com, 30 days ahead, 2-hour windows). Not needed on foot, by bike or on the free Eldo Shuttle.
Hours
Park: sunrise-sunset daily. Visitor center 9am-4pm, closed Thursdays.
Dogs
Leashed dogs permitted.
Parking
No reliable cell signal at the gate to book on arrival; reserve before you drive.
County
Boulder County

Checked 2026-09-29 against source 1, source 2, source 3. Rules change: confirm with the land manager.

Rules for all Colorado Parks & Wildlife land

Fees
Every Colorado state park requires an entrance pass for motor vehicles. A daily vehicle pass is $4 to $17 depending on the park; an individual pass covers entry on foot or bike.
Reservations
Eldorado Canyon runs timed-entry vehicle reservations on summer weekends and holidays; see the park's own page. Other parks do not require one to enter.
Permits
A daily pass is valid until noon on the day after purchase. The annual Keep Colorado Wild pass is $29 and is bought with a vehicle registration.

Read on Colorado Parks & Wildlife's own pages, checked 2026-09-29 by John Crawford. What they require, in full, or their own climbing page. These apply to the manager's whole holding; anything specific to this crag is above.

Nearby, from OpenStreetMap

Toilets
554 m away (map)
Mapped parking
470 m away (map)

Distances are a straight line from this crag's map point, which can itself be hundreds of metres off; a road may be much longer. Mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so a toilet missing here may simply be unmapped. Parking here is what OSM has drawn nearby, not a guidebook's directions.

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