Overview

Black Butte Road is a 5.3-mile side road off Gold Butte Road that provides 2WD-HC vehicle access to wild and rugged parts of Gold Butte National Monument west of Whitney Pocket. From the pavement, Black Butte Road runs southwest to the Falling Man Petroglyph Site. Past the trailhead, the road gets rougher and is better suited for 4WD vehicles, but still usually is passable in 2WD-HC vehicles. The road continues southwest, crosses a sandy wash (access to Twenty-one Goats), climbs over a low ridge, crosses another wash, passes Sand Wash Trailhead, and eventually climbs high onto the south side of Bitter Ridge. From there, the road drops steeply into a wash, then follows the wash uphill until climbing onto a ridge overlooking the Overton Arm of Lake Mead.

Presented here are photos of the return because it always looks different on the way back. For a detailed description of the road, including directions, maps, GPS coordinates, and photos, see Black Butte Road (southwest bound).