Kelly Butte — Saturday, May. 2, 2015

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

The good news - the road is in great condition all the way to the TH, minimal potholes and any vehicle with average clearance should have no problems. The bad news - Lots of ticks on the butte. We had an easy drive up the gravel roads to the TH and found only one other car there at about 11 AM Saturday, snow free all the way, including the trail. We took the new trail, but did a quick check of the old trail and found that he ropes are still in place. The weather was perfect, and we were down to t-shirts soon after we started up the rocks, but that had a downside which we discovered later. The views were terrific while we had lunch at the lookout. It was then that we found the first tick. From that point on we were as careful as we could be, but when we got back to the trailhead we found three more, all hiding in our hair. Not much in the way of wild flowers yet, at 5,800' Spring has just begun.