Kelly Butte — Saturday, Jul. 23, 2016

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

I decided to take my sister for a hike, so picked this one because it's not difficult (she's just getting back into hiking). Our sister adventure was entertaining just trying to find the trailhead! Oh boy. I wish we had been smart enough to bring boxed wine or something. First of all, the confusion started when someone made it look like the road was closed by dragging the big "road closed" sign across it (this was where you take a left on 7030). Apparently the campers scattered all over thought it would be funny to close the road. I got out and threw that big sign open! I can't even explain our silly mistakes after that point. Somehow we ended up on probably 1,000 forest service roads. We saw a lot of interesting things! Oh, and let's not forget the camper who told us where the "trailhead" was and where to park. Very funny! We were miles away. Lucky we decided that wasn't right. I guess he needed some comic relief. We definitely delivered. We did finally end up at the trailhead (at one fork there is a sign that reads "Kelly Butte" with a nice arrow. Go that way.) Then you go..well, just follow the wta directions (and don't have your sibling navigate!). This is a great trail! You start out on a bit of a boring logging road, but then you follow the "trail" sign up the fun part of the trail! Not a huge amount of wildflowers, but some were still blooming. We had some clearing on the way up, but then it became very foggy and cloudy. It was still fun! We even saw a mountain goat on the rocks off the trail-unfortunately my "real" camera decided to die right then. There was a dad and his young son at the lookout-they spent the night watching for fires! Very nice people, and graciously welcomed us inside. We never did see Mount Rainier or any views from the lookout. We ate lunch up there and hoped the sky would clear. It cleared a little for about a minute! It was still a fun day with my sister! I can only imagine the views up there.