Overview

Black Butte Peak is a striking, isolated limestone peak located on the desert flats west of Whitney Pocket. The peak is not tall (only 500 feet above the surrounding desert flats), but the summit is well defended by rocky outcrops that provide a challenging exercise in route finding and a sincere feeling of accomplishment when overcome.

Black Butte Peak is a good example of a Class-4 route: the scrambling is easy with plenty of hand- and foot-holds, and most hikers would not want a rope, but those who fall will die. Suffice to say, this is not a route for the faint of heart.

For a relatively low peak, the summit views are grand, and when ready to descend, the "challenging exercise in route finding" resumes because everything looks different on the way down.

Link to hiking map. See photos of the descent or scenery photos from the summit.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ... this route is Class-4, so be extra careful when scrambling in the cliffs. It is unlikely that experienced hikers would fall, but it would be easy to trip while walking along the arete. Trekking poles might be nice for the arete. The rock is very rough limestone, so some hikers might want gloves, although this has the benefit of making boots stick like glue on high-angle slopes.

This is a wild and remote area without services of any kind (no restrooms, no water, no gas, no food). Bring what you need to survive. Be prepared and be self-reliant. Someone will find you eventually if you stay on a main road, but be prepared to survive alone for a day or two. Cell phones only work along parts of the paved road.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, even though this hike is short, the area is remote, so be sure to bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

Getting to the Trailhead

Black Butte Peak is located out in Gold Butte National Monument at the northeast end of Lake Mead, about 2.5 hours northeast of Las Vegas in a wild, remote, and scenic area.

From town, drive out to Gold Butte National Monument. From Whitney Pocket, turn around and drive back north for 1.4 miles to Black Butte Road, an unmarked dirt road to the west. This is just past a large sandstone crag with campsites around the base. Turn left and drive west on Black Butte Road.

Black Butte Road stays left at a fork, passes through the Falling Man Trailhead area, runs through washes and up over low ridges until dropping into Sand Wash, 3.5 miles from the pavement. Black Butte Peak trailhead is the wide spot on the left, upstream, side of the intersection with Sand Wash Road. Park here; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 1, Waypoint 01), the route runs up Sand Wash about 100 yards to just past rock outcrops on the ridge. Following the first gully (Wpt. 02) up the side of the ridge, hikers quickly arrive atop the ridgeline (Wpt. 03). To reduce unsightly erosion tracks on the hillside, hikers should try to stay in the bottom of the gully until it disappears onto the hillside near the ridgeline.

Atop the ridge, nice views are had north and south, as this point already stands high above the surrounding desert.

The route turns east and runs up the ridgeline towards the peak. The three largest rocky outcrops are more easily passed on the left (north) side of the ridge. The fourth large rocky outcrop, a steep headwall, is not passable on the north because of high cliffs, and the route is forced onto the south side of the ridge.

Traversing right beneath the headwall, the south side of the ridge is found to be a broad slab of steeply sloping limestone. Passing the headwall, the route runs up and right. Staying along the base of the headwall, the route climbs onto sloping ledges (Wpt. 05) that form a bit of a walkway across the base of the sloping slab.

At this point, the route forks. The main route climbs a steeply sloping ramp that runs up and left (west), angling back onto the top of the previous headwall. Alternatively, a route runs across the walkway to the far side of the steeply sloping slab.

Scrambling up and left, the main route arrives atop the headwall, which now is the base of the arete (Wpt. 06). Scrambling up the arete, the north side falls away vertically for what seems like forever, and the south side falls away almost vertically for again, what feels like forever. Traversing the knife-edge ridge, White-throated Swifts whistle by at hypersonic speeds while Violet-green Swallows merely zoom by, but both serve to distract hikers from the task at hand and foot.

Near the top of the arete (near to Wpt. 07), the route drops off the north side of the ridge by downclimbing a 10-ft wall to a broad, sloping scree-covered ledge. From there, the route follows safe and easy terrain uphill to the summit (Wpt. 08).

Back on the broad slab of steeply sloping limestone (Wpt. 05), the alternate route uses the sloping ledges as a walkway to cross the sloping slab. Near the far side, a steeply sloping ramp runs up and left; this is a possible route. A few yards farther (Wpt. 06a), a groove leads straight up the steeply sloping slab (north) to a chimney that can be used to gain the ridgeline (Wpt. 07) just beyond the arete. Dropping over the north side of the ridge, broken rock leads down to the broad, sloping scree ledge, and from there easy terrain leads to the summit (Wpt. 08).

After resting and regaining composure, return to the trailhead over the same route.