Kelly Butte — Saturday, Jul. 1, 2017

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

After seeing some pictures of this lookout, I knew I wanted to try a sunrise hike. We had a group camping nearby although the drive was still over an hour to get to the trailhead. At 2:00 in the morning we made a few wrong turns. Should have followed mileage directions better. We were still half asleep as well. Got to the trailhead and ran into a couple heading up as well. We had a group of about 9 people and three dogs. Definitely recommend having a long leash for the dogs. I made the mistake of bringing our shorter leash and my dog kept wanting to cut the switch back corners which made it difficult for me. We planned on about an hour to hour and a half to get to the top. Started our hike around 3:30 and got to the top between 4:30-4:45. Was a stunning morning. Clouds were rolling in that looked like ocean waves. Got a lot of pictures in. There was a couple sleeping in the fire lookout, but not sure if they were the people that got there ahead of us or if they stayed the night up there. They missed the sunrise though. The view of mount rainier was amazing as well. I would like to do this again for a sunset hike, but worried about going down in the dark. Could be quite hazardous.