Hillers Butte

Best Time to Attempt This Route

The Powell Plateau approach is a remote, water-free backcountry route best attempted in cooler shoulder-season months given the lack of water along the way.

Trail Tips

• No maintained trail reaches the butte; Powell Plateau access is a remote, water-free backcountry route.
• Best — and about the only — vantage point is Dutton Point, reached via the Powell Plateau Trail from Swamp Point.
• This is a feature you find on a topo map rather than a park brochure — treat it accordingly.

How People Actually See It

Hikers who make the long, rough trip out to Powell Plateau and continue to Dutton Point get a sweeping view down into the main gorge toward the Colorado River, with buttes and temples like this one arrayed below. Outside of that route, Hillers Butte is essentially invisible from any paved overlook or developed viewpoint.

What You're Looking At: Hillers Butte

Hillers Butte is a remote sandstone butte buried deep in the canyon interior below the North Rim, part of a little-visited cluster of formations that also includes Buddha Cloister, Buddha Temple, and Clement Powell Butte. It sits just off Powell Plateau, the isolated "land island" of forested rim connected to the North Rim by a narrow neck near Swamp Point. There's no trail to Hillers Butte itself and no maintained access.