Opal Hill
16 boulder problems · clastic (Brushy Basin Shale Member of the Morrison Formation, with shale, siltstone) · 4,602 ft
What's here
VB to V3, mostly around V2.
Counted from the 16 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
Base placed (one source) 1 Position on wall known 15
The order of the climbs along this wall is known from the open catalogue, so a few surveys go a long way: standing at Mud Slide, Rock Slide (2 climbs, about 60 seconds on Mud Pile Boulder) would place up to 2 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.
Rock, from the geologic map
Brushy Basin Shale Member of the Morrison Formation (Brushy Basin Shale Member) — clastic; shale; siltstone. Late Jurassic, about 153 to 145 million years old.
Gray, pale-green, red, and light-purple mudstone and siltstone, a few lenses of gray sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate. Thickness 200-300 ft.
This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:100,000 sheet (Day and others, 1999, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 99-0427). 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. Every crag on this unit: Brushy Basin Shale Member of the Morrison Formation. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.
On the map since 1956
The USGS has mapped this ground since 1956. 13 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.
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, 1956 to 1981: 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
Geological and geographical atlas of Colorado and portions of adjacent territory · F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories · 1877
Free to read: public domain or government work. About Grand Junction Area as a whole, not this wall. More in the reading room.
Routes
Bi-Bush Boulder
- 1 Jumping, Jumboplane Jamboree V2-3
- 2 Groany, Groovy Gaston V2
Left-Down, Right-Up Boulder
- 1 Rightward V0+
- 2 Hold the Line V1+
Maiden Voyage Boulder
- 1 Jack Sparrow V2-3
- 2 Captain Jack is Off V3
- 3 Aye Aye V3-
Mammoth Boulder
- 1 Mammoth Spine V0-1
Mud Pile Boulder
- 1 Mud Slide V0-
- 2 Mud Pan V0
- 3 Pinched in Mud V2
- 4 Rock Slide V4-
Opal Hill First Boulder
- 1 Knuckle Buster V3
- 2 Hidden Diamonds V2+
- 3 Precut Gems V2
- 4 Crown Jewel V0
Also within 3 km
- Hilltop Bouldering915 m · 1 boulder problem · 4,763 ft
- Kodel's Trail1,901 m · 7 boulder problems · 4,714 ft
- Slab Boulder2,317 m · 5 boulder problems · 4,891 ft
- Kodel's Canyon2,575 m · 2 routes · 4,824 ft · McInnis Canyons
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.
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.
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
The map point for this crag is on land managed by Bureau of Land Management (federal), in Grand Junction Field Office.
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.
Rules for all Bureau of Land Management land
- Fees
- Developed campgrounds are fee sites: at Shelf Road, Sand Gulch is $20 a night for an individual site and $40 for a group site, with no drinking water, hook-ups or trash service. Where a fee area is posted, you must register and pay within 30 minutes of entering it.
- Overnight
- Camping more than 14 days in any 30-day period at any one location is prohibited, including in a campground, and afterwards you must move at least 30 air miles. Personal property may not be left unattended anywhere on public land for more than 48 hours.
Read on Bureau of Land Management'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
- 349 m away (map)
- Mapped parking
- 323 m away (map)
- Campsite
- James M. Robb - Colorado River State Park, Fruita Section, 1,316 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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