An adaptive triangular mesh and a locally implicit finite volume scheme are utilized to investigate the supersonic flow over a backward- facing step. In the Cartesian coordinate system, the unsteady Euler equations are solved. A new error indicator, which incorporates the unified gradient of density and the unified gradient of absolute value of vorticity, is developed in this work. Based on the comparison of the present solution with the related numerical and experimental data, the present approach can give satisfactory results. From the adaptive mesh, the structure of backstep corner vortex, expansion wave and oblique shock wave is clearly captured.