The Butterfly Trail runs north-south along the western side of Snow Canyon between the Lava Flow Trailhead and the West Canyon Road, and it functions less as a destination than as the connector that lets you string a half-day's walking out of the park's other short trails. Most parties don't drive to it and back; they pick it up at one end and walk through to a second car, or hike out and back as far as they have water for.
Where the name comes from
The "butterfly" is a sandstone formation visible from the upper end of the trail — twin lobes of weathered Navajo sandstone that, from the right angle, look like spread wings. The park sign at the south trailhead points it out and the West Canyon Overlook spur off the upper trail gets you closest. People hike it without ever noticing the formation; once you've seen it from the overlook the resemblance is obvious.
The walking
From the south end at the Lava Flow lot, the trail crosses a sandy wash, climbs a low slickrock bench, and runs along the western base of the canyon's red-rock cliffs. Vegetation is sparse — blackbrush, cliffrose, the occasional juniper — and the views to the east open up onto the orange sandstone walls that define the canyon. The trail surface is mixed: short sand stretches, slickrock benches, a few sections that cross old basalt rubble where the Lava Flow apron extends west.
Why it's the connector trail
Butterfly is the spine that lets you walk south-to-north or north-to-south through the western half of Snow Canyon without retracing steps. With a car shuttle you can park one vehicle at the Lava Flow lot and another at the Whiterocks pullout, walk the Butterfly through and pick up the Whiterocks Amphitheater on the way out, and end up with a 4–5 mile half-day that touches three named features. Out-and-back without a shuttle is also fine — the trail is well-marked and the views don't change much by direction.
Heat notes
This is a west-side trail with limited shade. Summer afternoons here are hostile in the same way Lava Flow is — the basalt rubble retains heat, the slickrock surface temperature climbs into triple digits, and the few junipers that exist don't cast meaningful shade until late in the day. The park's posted October-to-April recommendation isn't conservative; it's accurate.
Where it sits in the park
Butterfly is the connector that turns Snow Canyon's short trails into a coherent half-day rather than a series of disconnected stops. It's not the trail anyone drives in for, but it's the one that makes Petrified Dunes, Whiterocks, and Lava Flow feel like one place rather than three pullouts on a road. The park map shows it as a long thin spine along the canyon's west wall — the bones the rest of the day hangs on.