Kelly Butte — Wednesday, Jun. 6, 2018

Trail

So beautiful. The hike is about 1.7 miles one way and is only really steep in one section. Starts off really easy, then it opens up to a gorgeous view of Mt Rainier. You'll see a "Trail" sign and it proceeds to get steep. After the steep portion the trail walks along the side of the mountain moderately steeply with a beautiful open view. Then it goes through some trees for one last push. There are only two small snow patches that are no issue to walk over. There's a good amount of wildflowers right now beginning to bloom. A lot of beargrass will probably be bloomed in the next week or so. We saw a mountain goat with a baby on our way up (we were near the bottom, peering up at the rock cliff) Anyway, the hike is hard for part of it, but it's a good thing it's short. Took us an hour to get up. 

Lookout

The view at the lookout is absolutely beautiful! We were there for sunset. Using binoculars on Mt Rainier is really cool. There are many other peaks you can see. In addition to Puget sound and some of the Olympics in the distance. 

Road

The road to get to Kelly Butte is pretty tedious. I would highly recommend printing out directions and a map in case your phone dies or GPS doesn't work; it's pretty far from cell service. Luckily the 8 miles on FR70 is paved. But after that it turns to gravel. There's some washboarding and potholes but nothing you can't avoid, even in a sedan. Just a note... When following directions, the last turn is a right. If you find yourself taking a sharp right and seeing a DEEP dip in the road, it's the WRONG turn! Keep going straight for just a minute and you'll find the turn. Although the gravel road is easily drivable and pretty steep, I'd just like to advise to be careful on the way down. We have an old, '87 Chevy Nova and after driving a few miles down on the way back, our brakes overheated pretty badly and made it extremely difficult to stop the car. We let it cool down for 20 minutes and took it easy after that and engine braked for the rest of the gravel. I'm sure any newer vehicles would likely be just fine but just be careful. After the steepest gravel section, maybe just test your brakes to see if anything is up. (Or just smell outside lol). 

Overall, I am very glad I got to do this hike. It would be a great first time overnighter, the lookout seemed pretty cozy. You definitely are out in the middle of nature. It's very serene and you feel really far out there. Very worth it.