Kelly Butte — Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

Dave, Brad and I went up to the lookout. We had to walk an extra mile and a half from the junction of roads 7030 and 7032 due to snow still amassed along shadow spots in the road. The trail itself is snowfree on the south side of the butte, but there is still 18 inches of hard snow on the meadows near the lookout. The flowers are out!!! Beargrass, arnica, lupine and even a few sitka columbines make the steep ascent worthy of more rest breaks to admire the blooms. The lookout has survived the winter well in spite of someone taking shingles to use as firewood.( no positive remarks here.....) It's a great view up there but thunderstorms rolled in while we were there so we did a little work and then retreated. I look forward to returning often and suggest you do too.