Butterfly Peak, 7,361', and Trail, Santa Catalina Mountains

Essence: With a rise of a mere 61 feet, Butterfly Peak is not a ranked summit. Humble in stature, the mountain is renowned for butterflies congregating in clusters amongst wildflowers. While you may do a very short hike to the peak from the upper trailhead, the entirety of the Butterfly Trail has much to offer. This is a nature hike. Take your time. Name the blooming flowers, the butterflies. The trail skims through part of the Butterfly Research Natural Area, a nod to the diversity of the biology. Do this hike when it is sizzling in Tucson. It is peaceful and pleasant with plenty of shaded interludes. The Butterfly Trail is known for wide-spread views of the San Pedro Valley and the ranges to the east but a dust storm severely muted clarity on our hike. There are a remarkable number of twists and turns in the trail as it passes through a convoluted topography. The footpath has been recently maintained. The platform is generous, the brush cleared. You must contend visually with a fire-ravaged forest and some downed timber crossing your path. This is a point to point hike. No matter which trailhead you start from, you'll be doing the bulk of the descent at the front end of the hike. Conserve your energy accordingly. The trail is within the Coronado National Forest.
Travel: A short shuttle is required. We dropped a bicycle at the Butterfly Trailhead, drove back to the Bigelow Trailhead and began hiking from there. It's counterintuitive but elevation gain is roughly 200 feet less by starting at the "lower" trailhead. The Bigelow Trailhead is at mile marker 19.6, a tenth of a mile before the Palisades Visitor Center. To drop your shuttle vehicle, continue up the Catalina Highway. The road goes uphill for about a mile and then dives down for almost two miles. Pass Upper Soldier Camp Road. Butterfly Trailhead is on the right at mile marker 22.5, 2.9 miles from Bigelow. Both trailheads have pit toilets but no water. Display your Interagency Pass or pay for a day pass at the fee station. Dogs on leash.

Distance and Elevation Gain: 6.8 miles (includes spurs to the peak and F-86D crash site); 1,900 feet
Total Time: 4:00 to 6:00
Difficulty: Class 1 trail; navigation easy; no exposure
Map: Mount Bigelow, AZ 7.5' USGS Quad 

Date Hiked: April 5, 2026
Quote: Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. 

Zhuangzi, 4th century BCE

 

Butterfly Peak is a small roller on a northeast running ridgeline high on the eastern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The mountain falls well shy of spectacular, but paired with a hike on the Butterfly Trail, the natural world in this peaceful setting is sure to charm you. (Thomas Holt Ward, photo)

Route: The hike described bears north from the Bigelow Trailhead ascending to the Mount Bigelow and Kellogg Mountain saddle. The Butterfly Trail begins at the saddle and heads north to Westfall Knob. From there, the trail kinks in and out of drainages but holds a westward trajectory to the Butterfly Trailhead. There is an option to take a spur south to the F-86D crash site. Butterfly Peak is accessed by a short spur to the north.

 

Wrap your head around the concept that while the Bigelow Trailhead, elevation 7,940 feet, is almost three miles "down" the highway from the finish at the Butterfly Trailhead, it is almost 200 feet higher in elevation. The mission of the Bigelow Trail is to guide you to Mount Bigelow so it heads north out of the parking lot. By any measure the trailhead is well over 5,000 feet higher than the city of Tucson. Bring a layer and enjoy the invigorating cool, mountain temperatures. Way above the saguaro zone, the hike begins in a montane forest, primarily inhabited with old growth ponderosa pine. The trail winds through southwestern white pine, Douglas fir, and even some aspen further on. The path is duff-soft beneath your feet, wind in the pines makes a distinctive and comforting sound, and the uphill grade is barely noticeable,   

Take note of the large weathered Catalina Granite boulders exposed on the slope. Glistening crystals embedded in the stone is your clue that this coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock cooled slowly and solidified underground. Its composition is quite different than rock we'll be traveling through once we tip over to the east side of the ridgeline. (THW, photo) 

 

Look up periodically to see the five communication towers on Mount Bigelow and the historic fire lookout.

Arrive on the saddle at 0.7 mile. Three trails join in the saddle at a signed junction. Kellogg Mountain Trail takes off to the southeast and the Bigelow Trail cranks to the northwest. Mount Bigelow (LiDAR adjusted to 8,551 feet) is a ranked summit with a rise of 809 feet. It is a relatively small, 300-foot effort for those who want to claim it. Link to the Earthline post for details on Bigelow and Incinerator Ridge to the southeast. The Butterfly Trail continues straight ahead. At elevation 8,260 feet, this saddle is the highest point on the hike.

We made several attempts on the Butterfly Trail over the years. Each time we pushed the season and the trail was ice and snow-packed. We were delighted to see a pathway free of snow. The trail descends 1,700 feet over 3.3 miles to the low point at 6,560 feet. The trail is clear and visible well below as it flanks the north ridge of Bigelow on the eastern slopes. (THW, photo) 

Unfortunately, views of the San Pedro Valley for which this hike is famous were obscured by a dust storm. Below, Edgar Canyon, a tributary of the San Pedro River, lies in front of a northeast running ridgeline with triple prominences. The closest and tallest is Peak 6,053'.

I studied maps of the fire footprints of both the Aspen Fire in 2003 and the Bighorn Fire in 2020. I'm still not sure whether one or both of those fires ripped through this region. Much of the landscape was incinerated. There were some surviving trees, thankfully. Trip reports on the internet complain that the Butterfly Trail is overgrown and even hard to follow. That is no longer the case. A trail crew came through recently, cleared the brush, removed downed timber, and stabilized, widened, and hardened the platform. The tree lying on the trail seen below is an exception. 

 

It's been awhile since we've had an outstanding flower season in the American Southwest. The sustained drought we are suffering through is discouraging plants from blossoming. One exception was golden corydalis, also called golden smoke. Its yellow blossom is not super showy but it made up for it by being present throughout the hike. It is opportunistic and thrives post-fire. We were just a little too early but penstemon was sure to have a good year. We saw a smattering of purple vetch, bastard toadflax, verbena, Indian paintbrush, lupine, columbine, deervetch, whiplash daisy, and strawberry. There were sweet carpets of Canadian white violet. You have to be looking at your feet to spot their little clumps. (THW, photo) 

New Mexico raspberry was thriving throughout the hike. Two-inch white blossoms grow on a thornless, mountain-dwelling shrub up to six feet tall. The wild fruit, gathered since ancient times, is edible but not as tasty as standard raspberries, also seen in flower along the trail. (THW, photo) 

 We passed sprigs of coral bells growing from cracks in sheets of stone. (THW, photo)

The orange stone is gneiss, a metamorphic rock formed by high-temperature and high-pressure acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Look closely and if the sun is at the right angle you can see teeny-tiny glistening crystals. John Bezy ("A Guide to the Geology of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona," Arizona Geological Survey, Down-to-Earth 22, 2016) writes that the geology on the high eastern face of the Santa Catalina Mountains is extremely complex. Sedimentary, schist, granite quartzite, and limestone, have all been displaced by faulting. Rocks of vastly different ages are now in contact with each other and may even provide an exception to superposition, the basic principle of geology that says younger rocks are found above older ones. Over 15 million years, weathering and erosion by flash floods and debris flows on the eastern slopes of the range cut deep canyons, built great aprons of rock, and bajadas that slope to the floodplain of the San Pedro River.  

The visibility was so murky we could barely make out the Galiuro and Pinaleño mountains. The view must be spectacular on a clear day. In this image Edgar Canyon is running left of center and Evans Mountain is the highpoint on the right.  

   

The footpath descends consistently and the flora becomes typical of the pine-oak woodland zone: Arizona madrone, box elder, bigtooth maple, alligator juniper, various species of oak, soaptree yucca, and beargrass. At 1.7 miles the track switches from northwest to northeast and heads directly out the ridge toward Westfall Knob covered in fir trees, shown. We had planned to take a side trip west to Point 7,561' to look at Trundle Pinnacle but blew right by the only possible turnoff. Oops. (THW, photo) 

The trail flanks Westfall Knob on the east. I thought for sure there would be a social trail to the top but not a trace. It was a quick off-trail thrasher through sharp-thorned locust, shrubs, and singed trees to the top of the knob. At 2.1 miles, 7,780 feet, we found a summit cairn, but no register. The rise is decent at 120 feet but the views were obscured by vegetation. We could look back on Mount Bigelow. This little side trip should probably be saved for those like us who feel compelled to stand on features named on the topo.  

The trail zigs and zags down the ridge north of Westfall. The view corridor opens west to Radio Ridge on Mount Lemmon.

Northwest you can see the Mount Lemmon Control Road dug into the eastern slope of Oracle Ridge. Bezy explains how the tilted layers of bedrock on Marble Peak were placed. "Capping the massive granites and gneiss that form most of the bedrock is a package of sedimentary rocks lifted to their location on the roof of the range by the rising dome and later faulting. Such remnants of once-extensive rocks perched on the roof of igneous intrusions are called roof pendants--the brilliant cliffs of limestone and dolomite on Marble Peak." 

  

The trail hooks sharply west at 2.6 miles. Overall, the track holds a westward bearing from there, but cuts south seven times to head small canyons. Pass by a stepped stone wall composed of beautiful Catalina Gneiss in a small drainage flowing north. The signed junction with the Davis Spring Trail is at 2.9 miles. It bears northeast into Edgar Canyon. Point 7,651' and Trundle Pinnacle were visible and alluring. Now, we were super bummed we missed our chance to stand on the solid gneiss outcrop. (THW, photo) 

Intense folding and faulting has added to the complexity of the rock formations. The crest of the folds are so tight they are nearly horizontal.  

At 3.3 miles, 6,780 feet, a social trail split off south. We hopped on it thinking it was a climber's trail to the base of Trundle Pinnacle. But no! It was a social trail to the crash site of one of the two F-86D Sabre Dogs that suffered a mid-air collision and went down in 1957. It was pure luck that we stumbled on the wreckage. This image is an orientation photo for the crash site, in the drainage northwest of Point 5,761'.

   

If you'd like to see the wreckage, the social trail is on the east side of a creek 0.1 mile east of Novio Spring shown on the topo. Follow the thin trail south for 0.1 mile. The image below depicts the engine core. There are other sizeable scattered parts. Please leave everything exactly where you found it so others can witness this piece of history. 

 

The Max_Afterburner Channel created a documentary, "F-86D Sabre Midair Collision." To summarize, late in the afternoon of July 8, 1957, two F-86D Sabre Dog fighter aircraft from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base were flying in formation when they collided in the sky over Mount Bigelow. Both pilots ejected and floated to safety in the forest below. One of the fighters went down off the Butterfly Trail. It would have required helicopters to remove the debris so a decision was made to leave the wreckage in place. The second plane righted itself and flew 350 miles until it ran out of fuel and crash landed in New Mexico. The 30 minute documentary elaborates on the aircraft, events leading up to the midair collision, and the two pilots.   

In spite of the drought, the drainages we weaved in and out of were jungle-like. Dark, cool, and delicious. One of our favorite early season flowers in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado is western valerian. It is not terribly common and always a treat to greet. On the Butterfly Trail in early April, Arizona valerian blanketed entire hillsides. It was the most opulent display I'd even seen. Butterflies fluttered in and amongst the flowers. (THW, photo) 

The falls indicated on the topo map would be quite spectacular if there was water pouncing over the lip of the gneiss gorge. This image was shot from a small peninsula of stone hanging out over the edge of the canyon. The waterway is a south tributary of Alder Canyon. (THW, photo) 

Steps from the falls and 3.9 miles into the hike, the trail finally reaches its lowest point at 6,560 feet. Notably, the path there is enclosed within the Butterfly Peak Natural Area. Edible miner's lettuce tempts. There are tiny signs nearby warning the hiker of poison ivy in the vicinity. The track winds somewhat steeply up a dry, east-facing, high angled slope. There are bigger rocks on the platform aggressively cleaved into the hillside. Upon passing over a small north-facing ridgeline, we finally got a view of Butterfly Peak, more of a roller, honestly.  

Aspen are post-fire opportunistic and we walked through a lovely forest, leaves aflutter. At 5.0 miles we passed the junction with the Crystal Spring Trail. It probes deeper into the Natural Area and ends at the Mount Lemmon Control Road in 3.6 miles. Lively and shiny, brilliant green leaves bespeckled the deciduous plants. Fern fronds unfurled as a testament to the return of spring. A four-foot long non-venomous gold and black snake slithered away in the grass.  (THW, photo) 

Having risen back into the ponderosa zone, the trail ascends gently through an open park as you approach the ridge and saddle south of Butterfly Peak.  

The nondescript ridge is your clue that you've reached the social trail to Butterfly at 5.4 miles, 7,300 feet. The summit is a mellow 0.2 mile walk north. 

Rubble had been cleared from the secondary footpath. White, sharp-edged stone blocks were intriguing. The terrain was narrow enough to feel like a ridge but there was no sense of exposure. 

The path wandered through yucca, sotol, and bunchgrass.  

Crest the summit of Butterfly Peak at 5.6 miles. There was no summit register or even a peak cairn. Of course, we were anticipating swarms of butterflies. We saw a nice variety but no glorious clusters. The Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association conducts a spring and summer butterfly count in Sabino Canyon and all along the Catalina Highway up to Mount Lemmon. They held their spring count five days after our hike. They counted a record high 68 species and the highest number of individuals, 15,255. From the summit we looked back on Mount Bigelow, Westfall Knob and even the Trundle Pinnacle. (THW, photo)  

Butterfly is a good vantage point for the San Pedro Valley and the eastern ranges. Try to do your hike on a cerulean-clear day.  

Oracle Ridge is present but hard to capture visually through the timber.  

Upon returning to the Butterfly Trail count on another 420 feet of gain over the final mile. The finish to the highway is incredibly pleasant, shaded by venerable conifers. The trail rises ever so gently, winding in and out of dry creeks.  

 

Boulders bordering the trail add to the entertainment. 

Finish on a old dirt road, and even a bit of asphalt near the trailhead. 

When we arrived at the Butterfly Trailhead, 7,720 feet, it was picnic time on Easter Sunday. Families were celebrating with barbecue and Easter egg hunts in the cool mountain air. As we drove back down the mountain every conceivable picnic area was festive and crowded with the families of Tucson. Oh Joy! Harkening back to the quote at the top of this post, Easter is the Christian equivalent for the moth turning into a butterfly.

 

It's only 2.9 miles between trailheads. Those of you familiar with bicycling to the top of the Catalina Highway are fully aware of the two-mile uphill stretch when you are riding downhill from Summerhaven. Well, that stretch is on the shuttle route. So from the Butterfly Trail, ride uphill for 500 feet over two miles and then enjoy a one-mile ripping descent to the Bigelow Trailhead and your vehicle.