About this place
This is nearly 36,000 acres of public land, with one feature that geologists care about. It is a strange shape.
China Cup Butte is an almost perfectly circular cone, 1,260 feet across, with a crater 100 feet deep in the top of it.
It stands about nine miles southwest of Big Southern Butte, out on the south-central Snake River Plain.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
A small volcanic cone about nine miles southwest of Big Southern Butte, out on the south-central Snake River Plain.
Coordinates 43.27388889, -113.0772222
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Big Southern Butte Directions
- Cedar Butte Wilderness Study Area Directions
- Massacre Rocks State Park Directions
- East Butte Directions
- Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Butte City, ID Directions
- Aberdeen, ID Directions
Aberdeen is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.