Hike The Battleship Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

The Battleship GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

The Battleship is a cute little butte just off the Grand Canyon's south rim. Visible by the hoards of folks hiking down the Bright Angel Trail, it doesn't appear to be of much interest, but the scramble and views make it a great outing. Rather than waste time looking for parking closer to the trailhead, we parked at Lot D, a spacious lot a quarter mile away. From here we headed down along the Bright Angel Trail, following it for about 2 miles to where a large switchback starts to bend south at around 5400'. Here we left the trail and continued north up a short slope and onto a wide bench that would extend to the base of The Battleship.

Now off-trail, we starting looking for cairns or a social trail, locating at least two or three different options, none of which were easy to follow. I'd recommend sticking pretty close to the bench's rim, where we had the best luck locating a semblance of an established route. Keeping higher and closer to the upper cliff also was fine, but there were a couple of drainages that forced us back lower. Whether you find a marked route or not, it's overall pretty clear where to go since you're confined to the mostly-horizontal bench, but you may do a bit more ups and downs to avoid tiny cliffs and brushy sections if you choose a less than ideal route. Nothing exceeds Class 2 along this section, and after less than a mile of travel roughly along the same contour we reached the saddle on the south side of The Battleship.

We were able to pick up a much more established route from the saddle, which wrapped us around to the east face of The Battleship using a nice social trail. This social trail led us up to a point just east of the summit, where it became steeper for a short time in order to reach the cliff base. Here, a small chute marked a short Class 2+ set of moves. Past this short chute it might be tempting to continue south along the very visually-pleasing sandstone ledge, but this eventually cliffed out. Instead, just above the first short chute is second chute, longer and darker. Class 3 up this second chute bit got us to a third chute with some fun Class 3/3+ stemming/scrambling toward its top. Class 2 continued past the chutes and above the initial set of cliff bands to a wide sandstone ledge. This ledge wrapped south and under a small overhanging cliff. Past this overhang a dirt slope led up to a crack with some light exposure (Class 3).

Past the chutes and cracks was a bit more easy navigating on Class 2/3 terrain to reach the summit area of The Battleship. Although the summit has some nice views, we continued a little farther north to get an insanely cool perspective of an impressive tower and significant drop separating us from it. We could also see the Bright Angel Trail's twisting form far below, and only with closer inspection we could see that there were people on it. The Grand Canyon really threw off our perception of distance.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

The Battleship

5850 ft

450 rise

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Starting along the Bright Angel Trail.

A view down into Garden Creek. The Battleship is visible on the left.

Descending the Bright Angel Trail for a couple of miles.

The Battleship seen on the right.

We left the trail, headed up a short slope, and then kept pretty close to the 5400' contour for the walk over to The Battleship.

Along the bench, keeping mostly toward the edge of the rim, where the social trail was most obvious.

View back, Bright Angel Trail visible on the left.

Continuing along the bench, The Battleship now in view on the left.

Along the social trail, when we could find it.

Close-up along the bench.

At the southern saddle of The Battleship. A more clear route led to the right and over to the peak's east face.

Wrapping around to the east side of The Battleship.

Steeper section to get up to the eastern cliff.

The first short chute, which got us off the ground and onto the start of the scramble route.

View back down the short scramble. Just behind me is the next chute.

Chris starting up the second chute, Class 3.

Within the second chute, Chris seen at the top.

At the top of the second chute, view down toward Matt coming up. Immediately behind me is the third chute.

Chris scrambling the third chute.

View down from the top of the third chute.

Class 2 leads up to a wide ledge.

Along a wide ledge. You can see an obvious overhang ahead.

View back along the ledge.

At the end of the ledge, a slope leads up to the right.

At the top of this slope, a short Class 3 move up a crack, followed by Class 2/3 scrambling to gain the summit area.

Above the crack, view back toward the way we came from the summit area.

The Battleship summit ahead, view northwest.

The Battleship summit, view north.

We went a little bit farther north along the summit area to check out this impressive tower.

Close-up to the northwest.

Close-up toward the Bright Angel Trail from above.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!