Brahma Temple

Best Time to View Brahma Temple

Morning and late-afternoon light generally brings out the strongest contrast on this formation's layered rock, since low sun angles separate the pale Coconino cap from the darker formations beneath it. If viewing from the North Rim side, remember facilities and roads there close seasonally.

Tips for Viewing Brahma Temple

• Geologist Clarence Dutton named it for the Hindu creator deity in the 1880s, part of a mythological naming scheme he gave to dozens of canyon buttes; the name became official in 1906.
• The summit wasn't climbed until 1968, when Donald Davis and Clarence Ellis made the first ascent from Phantom Ranch — a 12-mile, 5,071-foot round trip that took them 14 hours. It still sees only a handful of climbers a year.
• Pair a viewing stop at Yavapai Point with the visitor center there for geology context on the whole layered wall.

Where to See Brahma Temple

The summit sits roughly 6 miles north-northeast of Yavapai Point and about 4.5 miles south of Bright Angel Point, towering some 5,000 feet above Phantom Ranch down in the canyon. View it from either rim's established overlooks — no trail leads to the summit itself, which wasn't climbed until 1968.

What You're Looking At: Brahma Temple

Brahma Temple is one of the massive freestanding buttes that give the inner canyon its skyline, rising to 7,551 feet in the Bright Angel Creek drainage between the two rims. You don't hike to it — you see it, most reliably from South Rim viewpoints like Yavapai Point, Hopi Point, and Shoshone Point, or from Bright Angel Point and Cape Royal on the North Rim. The cap is cream-colored Coconino Sandstone under a rim of Kaibab Limestone, with the Hermit Formation, Supai Group, and Redwall Limestone stacked below.