In geomorphology, a butte is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word butte comes from the French word butte, meaning knoll ; its use is prevalent in the Western United States, including the southwest where mesa is used for the larger landform. Due to their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently landmarks in plains and mountainous areas. To differentiate the two landforms, geographers use the rule of thumb that a mesa has a top that is wider than its height, while a butte has a top that is narrower than its height.
Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor. The most famous butte formations are located in northeastern Arizona along the Utah–Arizona state line. The valley is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, the Native American people within whose reservation it lies.
The Sutter Buttes are a small circular complex of eroded volcanic lava domes which rise as buttes above the flat plains of the Sacramento Valley in Sutter County, northern California. They are situated just outside Yuba City in the northern part of the state's Central Valley.
Hunts Mesa is a rock formation located in Monument Valley, south of the border between Utah and Arizona in the United States and west of the border between Arizona's Navajo County and Apache County. It is one of two popular interior destinations in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park for tourists to experience panoramic views of the popular sandstone formations from a distance. The other is Mystery Valley. A Navajo guide is required to hike to either.
Agathla Peak or Agathlan is a peak south of Monument Valley, Arizona, which rises over 1,500 feet above the surrounding terrain. It is 7 miles (11 km) north of Kayenta and is visible from U.S. Route 163. The English designation Agathla is derived from the Navajo name aghaałą́ meaning 'much wool', apparently for the fur of antelope and deer accumulating on the rock. The mountain is considered sacred by the Navajo.
The Black Buttes, also known historically as the Sawtooth Rocks, make up an extinct stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. Glacially eroded remnants of this volcano rise above the Deming Glacier, part of the glacier system of the nearby volcano, Mount Baker. There are three major peaks — Colfax, Lincoln, and Seward — all of which can be climbed.
Courthouse Butte is a butte just north of the Village of Oak Creek, Arizona, south of Sedona in Yavapai County. Summit elevation is 5,454 feet (1,662 m). It is just east of Bell Rock.
The Dry River is an intermittent tributary, 88 miles (142 km) long, of the Crooked River in the U.S. state of Oregon. The stream arises near Hampton Buttes north of Hampton and U.S. Route 20 between Brothers and Riley in the Oregon High Desert. Beginning in eastern Deschutes County near its border with Crook County, it flows generally northwest along the Deschutes–Crook county line, crossing briefly into Crook County before turning slightly south and returning to Deschutes County. Along these upper reaches, it flows roughly parallel to the highway, under which it passes several times before turning sharply north near the Horse Ridge Research Natural Area, 19 miles (31 km) southeast of Bend. Continuing north and re-entering Crook County, it passes under Powell Butte Highway, Oregon Route 126, and Oregon Route 370 before entering the Crooked River 34 miles (55 km) from the larger stream's confluence with the Deschutes River.
Missouri Buttes or Little Missouri Buttes are located in Crook County in northeast Wyoming on the northwest flank of the Black Hills Uplift. The buttes are 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest (N60°W) of Devils Tower between the Little Missouri and the Belle Fourche rivers.
Strawberry Crater is a cinder cone volcano, more than 1,000 feet (300 m) high, in the San Francisco volcanic field, 20 miles (32 km) north of Flagstaff, Arizona. It is along Forest Road 545 between the Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater National Monument in the Strawberry Crater Wilderness. The crater lies in a volcanic field at a base elevation of about 5,500 feet (1,700 m), and prominence heights of about 6,526 feet (1,989 m). The northwestern end of the crater is covered with lava flows, while the southern end is filled with low cinder cones. Several of the surrounding cones include the better known, taller and younger Sunset Crater in the adjacent Sunset Crater National Monument.
Cathedral Rock is a natural sandstone butte near Sedona, Arizona, and one of the most-photographed sights in Arizona, United States. The rock formation is located in the Coconino National Forest in Yavapai County, about 1 mi (1.6 km) west of Arizona Route 179, and about 2.5 mi (4.0 km) south of the "Y" intersection of State Routes 179 and 89A in uptown Sedona. The summit elevation of Cathedral Rock is 4,967 ft (1,514 m).
Buckskin Mountain is a 16-mile (26 km) mountain ridge that spans from Coconino County, Arizona to Kane County, Utah in the United States, that is divided almost equally between the two counties.
Newton Butte, in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States is a prominence below the South Rim, northwest of Grandview Point, and north on a ridgeline from Shoshone Point which is one mile east of Yaki Point, East Rim Drive. Shoshone Point and Yaki are both on access roads from East Rim Drive, with Yaki being the more advantageous to different viewing directions.
The West and East Mitten Buttes are two buttes in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in northeast Navajo County, Arizona. When viewed from the south, the buttes appear to be two giant mittens with their thumbs facing inwards.
The Totem Pole is a pillar or rock spire found in Monument Valley. It is a highly eroded remnant of a butte.
Poston Butte, formerly called Primrose Hill, is a hill located along Hunt Highway in Florence, Pinal County, Arizona, United States, near the eastern end of the Santan Mountains. Geologically, it is characterized by basalts overlying altered granite.
The Cline Buttes are mountains with volcanic origins that form three dome-shaped peaks located in Deschutes County in central Oregon. They are some of the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range. Situated on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the buttes are flanked on the east and west sides by two separate sections of the Eagle Crest Resort. On the highest summit, there is a Federal Aviation Administration site with an aircraft navigation beacon. The mountains have several hiking trails as well as a number of popular mountain bike routes.
