Best Butte

Auyan-tepui is a vast table-top mountain in Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela, within the Guiana Highlands. Angel Falls descends from its edge, with a total height of 979 meters and an uninterrupted main drop of 807 meters. The tepui's isolated summit, sheer cliffs, sandstone geology,...

Table Mountain is a flat-topped sandstone mountain overlooking Cape Town and Table Bay in South Africa, with its highest point reaching about 1,086 meters above sea level. It forms part of Table Mountain National Park and the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage property recog...

The Bungle Bungle Range is a group of deeply eroded sandstone formations within Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its rounded, beehive-like domes display alternating orange and dark bands produced by differences in mineral staining and biological crusts. The range...

Kata Tjuta is a group of 36 massive domed rock formations in Australia's Northern Territory, west of Uluru, within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Composed mainly of conglomerate rock, the formations culminate at Mount Olga, whose summit is about 1,066 meters above sea level. Kata Tjuta is sacred to...

Cathedral Rock is a prominent red-rock formation near Sedona in central Arizona, within the Coconino National Forest. Its clustered sandstone spires rise above the surrounding high-desert landscape and form one of the area's most recognizable geological profiles. A steep public trail approaches a sa...

West Mitten Butte is one of the two Mitten Buttes in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, within the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-Utah border. Its isolated sandstone mass rises roughly 1,000 feet above the valley floor and includes a narrow projection resembling the thumb of a mitten. Together with...

East Mitten Butte is an isolated sandstone butte in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, within the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-Utah border. Its name refers to a prominent spire that resembles the thumb of a mitten when the formation is viewed from certain directions. It stands near West Mitten Bu...

Diamond Head, known in Hawaiian as Leahi, is a volcanic tuff cone on the southeastern coast of Oahu beside Honolulu and Waikiki. It formed during an explosive eruption, and its broad crater and prominent coastal profile later became a navigational landmark and a site of United States military fortif...

The Titan is the tallest tower in the Fisher Towers group northeast of Moab, Utah, rising roughly 900 feet above its base. It consists of fragile, erosion-sculpted sandstone and darker sedimentary material characteristic of the towers, with steep walls and a narrow summit. The formation is known pri...

Butte Montmartre is a hill in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, rising to roughly 130 meters and forming the highest natural elevation in the city. The Sacre-Coeur Basilica crowns its summit, while the surrounding district includes steep streets, stairways, historic cabarets, studios, and the Place...

Merrick Butte is an isolated sandstone formation in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, within the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-Utah border. It stands close to East and West Mitten Buttes and is visible from the park's main viewpoint and scenic drive. The English name commemorates prospector James...

Ancient Art is a slender sandstone tower in the Fisher Towers group northeast of Moab, Utah. It is distinguished by an unusually narrow, twisted summit commonly called the Corkscrew, reached through exposed technical climbing rather than a walking trail. The formation is a recognized desert climbing...

Agathla Peak is an isolated volcanic neck south of Kayenta in northeastern Arizona, within the Navajo Nation. Formed from erosion-resistant igneous rock exposed after the surrounding volcanic material was worn away, it rises roughly 1,500 feet above the nearby plain and is visible from U.S. Route 16...

Cerro Pedernal, commonly called Pedernal, is a prominent flat-topped mountain in northern New Mexico near Abiquiú. Its resistant cap and steep slopes make it a distinctive landmark above the surrounding high-desert terrain. American painter Georgia O'Keeffe repeatedly depicted Pedernal from differen...

The Three Sisters are three slender sandstone pinnacles in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, within the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-Utah border. They stand close together beside a broader rock formation and are commonly compared to a Catholic nun facing two pupils. The formation is visible from...

Arthur's Seat is the highest point in Holyrood Park, an open landscape beside central Edinburgh, Scotland. Rising to about 251 meters above sea level, it forms part of the remains of an ancient volcanic system later reshaped by erosion and glaciation. Its summit and surrounding paths are used by wal...

Bell Rock is a prominent bell-shaped sandstone formation in the red-rock country between Sedona and the village of Oak Creek in Arizona. It rises above the surrounding terrain near Arizona State Route 179 and is reached through a network of hiking and mountain-biking trails in the Coconino National...

Moses is a tall, isolated sandstone tower in Taylor Canyon within the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. It stands beside the smaller formation known as Zeus and was shaped as erosion removed the surrounding sedimentary rock. The tower is known primarily to experienced cl...

A Monument Valley sandstone butte named after Ernest Mitchell, killed alongside prospector James Merrick in 1880 while seeking a legendary silver deposit.

Punchbowl Crater is a volcanic tuff cone in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Its bowl-shaped interior contains the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which was established in 1949 and holds the remains of members of the United States armed forces as well as memorials to missing personnel. The...

Independence Monument is a freestanding sandstone formation in Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, Colorado. Rising about 450 feet from its base, it is separated from the surrounding canyon walls and is a prominent feature along Monument Canyon. It is known to climbers for Otto's Route a...

Mont Aiguille is a 2,086-meter limestone mountain in the Vercors Massif of southeastern France, distinguished by steep cliffs surrounding a relatively level summit plateau. Its documented ascent in 1492 was ordered by King Charles VIII and completed by a party led by Antoine de Ville using ladders a...

The Sutter Buttes are an isolated cluster of eroded volcanic peaks rising from California's Sacramento Valley near Yuba City. Their highest point, South Butte, reaches about 2,122 feet, and the formation is the remnant of volcanic activity rather than a conventional mountain chain. Much of the land...

Cabezon Peak is a prominent volcanic neck in Sandoval County, New Mexico, west of the Rio Grande. Composed mainly of resistant basaltic rock, it is an eroded remnant of magma that solidified within the conduit of an ancient volcano and now rises roughly 2,000 feet above the surrounding Rio Puerco va...

Merrick Butte is an isolated sandstone butte in Monument Valley, within the Navajo Nation near the Arizona-Utah border. It stands near the better-known East and West Mitten Buttes and was shaped by the erosion of sedimentary rock layers that once extended across the region. Its steep walls and broad...

Monument Rocks, also called the Chalk Pyramids, is a group of tall chalk formations in Gove County, Kansas. The towers, arches, and isolated blocks consist of Niobrara Chalk deposited in the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous, and fossils of marine organisms occur in the surrounding...

North Six-Shooter Peak is a slender sandstone tower near the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. It stands with the broader South Six-Shooter Peak above the desert landscape near Indian Creek, and the pair's profiles inspired their firearm-related names. The formation...

Courthouse Butte is a massive red sandstone formation in the Village of Oak Creek area south of Sedona, Arizona. It stands beside Bell Rock and forms part of the prominent skyline along State Route 179, with cliffs and layered slopes shaped by erosion. The Courthouse Butte Loop Trail circles the for...

Steptoe Butte is a quartzite landform in Whitman County, Washington, rising to about 3,612 feet above sea level and standing prominently above the surrounding Palouse farmland. It is a monadnock, meaning that its resistant rock remained after erosion lowered the surrounding terrain. Protected as a s...