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 Mount Harriman, Crater Mountain and Greylock Mountain. Another peak, Mount Carmine, which lies just over 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 satellite cone, rises on the southern flanks of the main volcano separated from it by a pass.