Hike Coronado Butte Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Mar 26, 2022 — Coronado Butte is an iconic formation situated just off the south rim of the Grand Canyon, an excellent peak with some fun route-finding and an incredible backdrop. It's best accessed via the New Hance Trail. The start of the New Hance Trail itself has "no parking" signs, so we used a pullout just down the road instead. Overall it's an easy trail to follow, with cairns marking slightly eroded sections. There are parts that include some Class 2 scrambling, but it's mostly a series of switchbacks leading down from the Grand Canyon's rim. Coronado Butte is visible the whole way down, and the initial goal is to reach the saddle on its southern side.

Once we descended to around 5900' along the New Hance Trail, we were positioned just east of the saddle. We left the trail and ascended a short slope using a social trail to gain the saddle, where Class 2 continued along the spine of the southern ridge of Coronado Butte. After ascending about 600 feet on slabs of sandstone with a couple of short Class 2+/3 moves mixed in, we made it to a small cliff band. This is easily avoidable by using a short, steep gully to the right of the ridge crest (or via a Class 2/3 scramble pretty much anywhere else along the cliff base). Past here is a flatter section where Coronado Butte is positioned directly ahead.

We headed along the wide ridge as it slowly ascended toward the base of the peak's southern cliff. It will be tempting to continue directly to the cliffs, but the ascent route to get above is accessed via the northeast side of the peak. To reach this, there is a social trail that wraps around to the east side of Coronado Butte, staying low and taking its time to ascend rather than leading directly up to the headwall. After wrapping around to the northeast side on easy terrain via this social trail, we were granted excellent views to the north toward the Colorado River and then the initially pretty unnerving-looking northeast face of Coronado Butte. It seems like a series of impassable protruding cliffs separated by gullies. However, hidden by trees, the first gully provides a route. We hugged the cliff face and entered this gully, where some loose and dirty scrambling (Class 2/3) leads to solid Class 3 scrambling.

At the top of this first gully, the route continues on the right using a very cool ledge. The ledge wraps around the first protruding cliff that we'd seen from below. It narrows briefly as it enters the next gully over and becomes a bit exposed, though the scrambling remains Class 2. We started up the second gully, this one going more easily at Class 2/3 with some light brush. Once this gully opens up, we headed to the right, wrapping around yet another of the protruding cliffs we'd seen from below, this time hugging the cliff face on a wider slope/ledge. This ledge continues for a while, but we noted a Class 3 short scramble to get above it, taking this opportunity to gain higher ground. Past here the cliff ahead of us was far too tall to scramble up, but we located a sort of indentation in the cliff where the final bit of Class 3 is found. This spot (the crux, in my opinion) requires a series of fun moves on relatively solid rock. Past this ledge is Class 2 to the summit block of Coronado Butte and the incredible views into the Grand Canyon.