Hawkins Butte

Best Time to View It

Grandview Point is accessible year-round on Desert View Drive, so timing follows your broader South Rim itinerary rather than a season specific to this formation.

Good to Know

• The butte was officially named in 1932 for William "Billy" Robert Hawkins, hunter and cook on John Wesley Powell's pioneering 1869 expedition down the Colorado River through the canyon.
• It's one of several formations in this stretch honoring members of that first river party rather than the mythological names given to nearby peaks.
• Grandview Point offers the clearest sightline north to the formation among South Rim overlooks.

Where to See Hawkins Butte

You don't hike to it — it's a formation you pick out from South Rim viewpoints, most notably Grandview Point, looking north across the gorge toward Zoroaster Temple and Brahma Temple in the same sightline.

What You're Looking At: Hawkins Butte

Hawkins Butte is a 5,340-foot summit deep in the canyon's eastern interior, attached at the southwest end of Angels Gate along the drainage of Ninetyone Mile Creek. It's the lowest of a connected trio of formations that step down in elevation from Angels Gate to Dunn Butte to Hawkins Butte, their bases fused into a single ridge rather than three separate towers.