Cardenas Butte is a 6,281-foot-elevation summit located in the eastern

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

, in

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

of northern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. Cardenas Butte is named for

García López de Cárdenas García López de Cárdenas y Figueroa was a Spanish conquistador who was the first European to see the Grand Canyon. Life Cárdenas was born in Llerena, Crown of Castile, second son to Alonso de Cárdenas, 1st Count of La Puebla del Maestre ...

, the first European to see the Grand Canyon. The butte is located on a dp orange-red ridgeline of the

Supai Group The Supai Group is a slope-forming section of red bed deposits found in the Colorado Plateau. The group was laid down during the Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian. Cliff-forming interbeds of sandstone are noticeable throughout the group. The Su ...

, adjacent its higher elevation neighbor, Escalante Butte; both buttes are ~1.5 miles north-northwest of Navajo Point in far eastern South Rim, approaching the East Rim.

Cardenas Butte (and Escalante) are drained on the east by Tanner Canyon, north to the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

; the northwest of Cardenas Butte is drained northwest by Cardenas Creek, and north by an unnamed drainage. The

Tanner Trail The Tanner Trail is a hiking trail located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, located in the U.S. state of Arizona. The trailhead is located at Lipan Point, a prominent lookout located to the east of the Grand Canyon Village, ...

from Navajo Point, courses the east, upper ridges of Escalante, then Cardenas Butte, upon the Supai Group, until the trail drops down through the Redwall Limestone, at the Supai ridgeline terminus. Cardenas Butte and Escalante Butte have similar elevations, with Escalante about 300 ft higher, and westwards up the burnt-orange-red ridgeline.

Geology of Cardenas and Escalante Buttes

Cardenas Butte and Escalante Butte lie upon the same

ridgeline. At the west, Escalante is separated by a ridge saddle (the drainage southeast into Upper Tanner Canyon). Escalante Butte prominence is a small, heavily eroded

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

and debris remainder of Coconino Sandstone, (on

Hermit Shale The Permian Hermit Formation, also known as the Hermit Shale, is a nonresistant unit that is composed of slope-forming reddish brown siltstone, mudstone, and very fine-grained sandstone. Within the Grand Canyon region, the upper part of the H ...

), on eroded ridges of the Supai Group. Cardenas Butte, is about 300 ft lower than Escalante Butte, and 0.8 mi east, on an eroded ridgeline of Supai Group. Its small spire is a surviving cliff-former unit of the Supai Group, the cliff and shelf of the

Esplanade Sandstone The Lower Permian Esplanade Sandstone is a cliff-forming, resistant sandstone, dark red, geologic unit found in the Grand Canyon. The rock unit forms a resistant shelf in the west Grand Canyon, south side of the Colorado River, at the east of t ...

. A small amount of debris-remainder may survive on the surface of the prominence-shelf, the

slope-former A slope-former is a unit of bedrock which is less resistant to erosion than overlying or underlying units and consequently results in outcrops with low relative slope angles. It may be contrasted with cliff-former. Typical slope forming litholo ...

.Prominence of Cardenas Butte (photo), Summitpost
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References

External links

{{commons category, Cardenas Butte
Closeup View of Cardenas Peak, Summitpost (type name)

View of Escalante Butte, and Supai Group ridgeline, with Cardenas Butte; Summitpost. (Choose Escalante Butte)
Grand Canyon Grand Canyon National Park Colorado Plateau Buttes of Arizona Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Mountains of Arizona Mountains of Coconino County, Arizona North American 1000 m summits

Geology of Cardenas and Escalante Buttes

See also

References

External links