Mount Sopris, Colorado: Hiking the Twin Summits Above Carbondale (2026)

Mount Sopris is the mountain that makes people pull over on Highway 82 and ask what it is. It tops out at 12,965 feet, which means it isn't a 14er and never shows up on the peak-bagging lists. It also rises more than 6,000 feet straight out of the Roaring Fork Valley floor, so it looks and climbs bigger than plenty of peaks that outrank it on paper.

The summit hike runs roughly 12 to 14 miles round trip with about 4,300 to 4,800 feet of gain, which is more climbing than most Colorado 14ers ask of you. The shorter version, a hike to the Thomas Lakes at the base of the east ridge, is around 7 to 8 miles round trip and about 1,600 feet of gain. Both start from the same trailhead near Dinkle Lake, south of Carbondale.

This guide covers the drive, both hikes, the twin-summit question that confuses first-timers, the overnight permit rules that catch backpackers off guard, and when to go.

What you'll learn

• Quick stats for the lakes hike and the full summit
• Why Sopris hikes harder than its elevation suggests
• Getting to the trailhead from Carbondale
• The hike to Thomas Lakes, the moderate option
• Thomas Lakes to the summit, where it gets real
• East Sopris or West Sopris, and which one counts
• Making it an overnight and the permit rules
• Best time to hike
• What to pack
• Wilderness rules
• FAQs

Quick stats {#quick-stats}

Published figures vary by a mile or so depending on where people start their GPS and whether they touch both summits. Treat these as ranges, not gospel.

Why Sopris hikes harder than its elevation suggests {#prominence}

Colorado hikers are trained to sort peaks by elevation, and by that measure a 12,965-foot mountain is a warm-up. Sopris breaks the rule because of where it sits. It stands at the northwest end of the Elk Mountains with no neighbors to prop it up, so the whole mountain is exposed from base to summit. West Sopris rises about 6,400 feet above the valley to its west in only 2.7 horizontal miles.

Compare that to a peak like Grays or Quandary, where you drive to a trailhead above 10,000 or even 11,000 feet and only climb the top 3,000. On Sopris you start in the mid-8,000s and climb the whole thing. That's why the summit day is longer and steeper than most of the 14ers people use it to train for.

The mountain got its name in 1860. Richard Sopris left Denver on July 1 with fourteen other prospectors, headed west of the Continental Divide looking for gold. When the party dropped into the Roaring Fork Valley and saw the peak, they named it for their expedition leader. Sopris went on to serve in the Civil War, sat as a delegate to Colorado's first constitutional convention, served as mayor of Denver from 1878 to 1881, and pushed through the creation of Denver's City Park.

Getting to the trailhead {#getting-there}

From Carbondale, head south on CO-133 for about two miles, then turn left onto Prince Creek Road. Follow it several miles and stay on it as it turns to dirt, then bear onto Dinkle Lake Road and follow signs for the Thomas Lakes trailhead. The parking area sits about a quarter mile before Dinkle Lake itself.

The last stretch is dirt and gets rutted and washboarded, especially after storms. Most passenger cars make it in dry conditions if you take it slow, but clearance helps and a wet spring can change the answer. Check current road conditions with the White River National Forest before you commit, and read our notes on trailhead parking in Colorado if you're driving up on a weekend.

There's no fee and no timed-entry reservation to park here, which is a real advantage over the Maroon Bells corridor an hour up the road. The lot is small, though. Summer weekends fill early, and the overflow situation is limited, so plan on an early start regardless of which hike you're doing.

The hike to Thomas Lakes {#thomas-lakes}

This is the version most people do, and it's a good day on its own. The trail climbs steadily through aspen and evergreen, opens up for valley views behind you, and reaches the two Thomas Lakes in about 3.5 to 4 miles. Prepared hikers and leashed dogs get there in two to three hours.

The lakes sit in a shallow basin right under the east ridge, and the view up at the summit mass from the shoreline is the payoff. It's a good picnic turnaround, a solid conditioning hike, and the standard first night for anyone splitting the summit into two days. If alpine water is your thing, it fits neatly alongside the other alpine lakes worth hiking to in Colorado.

Turning around here is not a consolation prize. It's about 1,600 feet of gain in a pretty basin with no permit hassle, and it's the right call if the weather looks unsettled or anyone in the group is still adjusting to elevation.

Thomas Lakes to the summit {#summit}

Past the lakes the trail gets serious. You gain roughly 2,800 to 3,300 feet from the lakes to East Sopris, and you do it on the east ridge with very little shade once you clear timberline. The upper mountain is loose rock and talus, and the final stretch is Class 2 scrambling where you'll use your hands for balance on the bigger blocks.

Two things make this section harder than the numbers suggest. The ridge is long, so the summit stays visible and stubbornly distant for a couple of hours. And the rock is genuinely loose in places, which slows the descent more than people budget for. Plenty of parties reach the top in good time and then take just as long coming down.

Start early. Above treeline on a summer afternoon you're the tallest thing on a very exposed ridge, and Colorado thunderstorms build fast. The same discipline that applies on Longs Peak and Pikes Peak applies here: be off the ridge by early afternoon, and turn around when the sky tells you to.

East Sopris or West Sopris {#twin-summits}

Sopris has two summits half a mile apart, and here's the part that trips people up: they're the same height. Both East Sopris and West Sopris measure 12,965 feet. The saddle between them drops to about 12,660, so each rises roughly 300 feet above the connector, which puts them right on the borderline of Colorado's usual 300-foot rule for counting a summit as its own peak.

The standard trail from Dinkle Lake tops out on East Sopris, so that's the one most hikers mean when they say they climbed Sopris. Traversing over to West Sopris adds about a mile round trip and a few hundred feet of regain on more loose rock. It's a reasonable add-on if you're feeling strong and the weather is holding, and pointless if either of those isn't true.

You'll also see the elevation listed as 12,953 feet in older sources and on some signs. Modern surveys settled on 12,965. Both numbers refer to the same mountain, so don't let it worry you.