Aspen Butte

Aspen Butte is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon. It is located 15 mi south of Pelican Butte and 15 mi southeast of Mount McLoughlin. It rises over 4000 ft above the nearby shore of Upper Klamath Lake. Ice Age glaciers carved three large cirques into the north and northeast flanks of the mountain removing most of the original summit area including any evidence of a crater. The summit is now the high point along the curving ridge which bounds the southern edge of the cirques above steep cliffs.

Aspen Butte is the highest of four overlapping shield volcanoes within the Mountain Lakes Wilderness all of which have been carved to varying degrees by glaciers. The other volcanoes are 7979 ft Mount Harriman, 7785 ft Crater Mountain and 7741 ft Greylock Mountain. Another peak, 7882 ft Mount Carmine, which lies just over 1 mi to the north of Aspen Butte, is actually not a separate volcano but the highest remnant of the north flank of the Aspen Butte volcano separated from it by two glacial cirques. Little Aspen Butte, a 7235 ft satellite cone, rises on the southern flanks of the main volcano separated from it by a 6556 ft pass.