Down The Trail

The Battleship as viewed from Powell Point

Visible from Grand Canyon Village and many viewpoints along the Rim Trail, the Battleship is one of the most recognizable buttes in the Grand Canyon.
It also happens to be one of the most accessible, easy buttes to climb, as the main feature along the upper half of the Bright Angel Trail.

The route begins from the two-mile turn on the Bright Angel Trail – after the 1.5-mile rest house, there’s a long switchback to the west – the end of this is the two mile turn. The best place to leave the trail is where it begins to head back toward the east, off the left(north) side, toward the Battleship. If you’re fortunate, you should soon find a well defined, cairned trail that tends to stay low, toward the edge of some 15-20 foot high Supai blocks. Even without the aid of a trail, a route through the Supai is rather straight-forward.

The simplest way to climb The Battleship begins toward the center of its east face. As opposed to the reddish hue of most of the rocks here, look for a larger gray colored boulder potruding from the base of the cliffs – this is the begining of the route. Near the top of this boulder you should find a long crack leading toward the north – the end of this crack involves a sort of chimney move that’s the trickiest part of the entire climb. Once your past this, the route leads south along a broad ledge before switching back toward the north – another scrambling switchback or two and you’ll find yourself on the summit.

The two-mile turn – just past this point, off the lower right-hand corner of the photo, is the best place to leave the Bright Angel Trail.

There’s a well-cairned path… if you’re fortunate enough to locate it on the first try.

the long crack at the base of the center of the east face

Don’t worry, the route doesn’t lead along this ledge.

the summit cairn!

Look toward the south end of the summit for these old inscriptions.

This guy carved “Scranton, PA” in the rock – Scranton is less than 60 miles from my hometown in Pennsylvania.

A battleship-shaped cairn on the summit – apparently it used to resemble a battleship much more closely.

my second Grand Canyon summit!

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