Clement Powell Butte

Best Time to View It

Since this formation is spotted rather than hiked to, timing follows whichever rim overlook or inner-canyon route you're already using rather than a season specific to the butte.

What to Know

• There are no facilities nearby and no posted access route, so treat it as a feature to identify and photograph rather than a summit to reach.
• Knowing the Powell-expedition naming history adds context if you're pointing it out to a group from a rim overlook.
• A canyon formation map or interpretive guide helps distinguish it from neighboring named buttes.

Seeing Clement Powell Butte

Like most of the canyon's deep-interior buttes and temples, this one isn't a hiking destination in itself — it's a landmark you pick out from a distance, either from a rim overlook with a clear line down-canyon or while working a longer route through the inner canyon. There's no maintained trail leading to the butte itself.

What You're Looking At: Clement Powell Butte

Clement Powell Butte is one of the many named rock formations rising from the floor of the Grand Canyon's interior, well below either rim and out of easy reach of a day visit. It takes its name from Walter Clement "Clem" Powell, a first cousin of Major John Wesley Powell who served as assistant photographer on the second Powell expedition down the Colorado River in 1871-72 and kept his own detailed journal of the trip.