This was a fun, quick hike! It was the perfect addition to a rainy day spent driving up the Coulee Corridor scenic byway.
Parking was plentiful and it was easy to find the trailhead from the day use parking lot. The worst of the ascent was over quickly, and the views from the top were beautiful! The southern half of the butte is covered by a web of social trails, and I wasn't able to find any routes that made a continuous loop, but the trail on the northern side was much more defined. I completed the full northern loop before returning to my car, for a total of 5.2 miles in slightly less than two hours.
Misc. thoughts:
- Saww plenty of wildflowers and birds (plus a herd of deer!) at the top, and a few wild turkeys at the bottom!
- The scree-covered descent is no joke! I was hiking alone, and crab-walked down the steepest part of the slope because i was afraid of falling.
- I was trying to move quickly (it was late afternoon and VERY rainy/windy), but I wish I had been able to spend more time exploring the trails on top of the butte. Putting a weekend at this campground (and another hike up steamboat rock) on my list for future seasons
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