Great day to explore. Decided to take the family up to Kelly Butte to see where my father was stationed as a lookout for two years back in the 30's. As described in previous reports, the roads are a bit confusing, but the directions were great and we made good time to the unsigned trailhead. The initial 0.25 miles of the trail are STEEP-- not a place for small children or the faint of heart. The trail goes straight up a rock chute for 150 yds before turning into more normal switchbacks. There is a small polypro rope, but it's been there a while, so we didn't totally trust it. After this section, the trail becomes a nice easy stroll through the Independence Day wildflowers (Red paintbrush, White Beargrass, and Blue lupines)-- and fabulous views of Rainier. Once on top of the butte, we meandered through the Noble firs and beargrass to the north end where the lookout is. The lookout has been abused badly and needs some TLC-- lots of broken glass and graffiti, including an entire family that felt like they had to record the presence of themselves and their 14 month old baby... Anyway, a short hike with great views, flowers, and solitude. Put this one on your list to go see.

Updated directions: Go two miles south of Greenwater to FS 70. Turn left on 70 and RESET your mileage counter. At 8.2 miles turn left on a paved road that quickly turns to dirt. Continue to a ""tee"" where a tree on the right shows a motorcycle sign and there are several piles of dirt and rock in front of you. Take the left and go to another intersection. Your mileage counter is at 12.6 miles. Bear left (an old sign indicates this road is 7030). At 13.3 miles turn right on 7030 (straight takes you onto 7032). At 14.4 miles from FS70 and 410, find a ratty-looking dirt road to the left. Park and walk the .7 mile to the trailhead. A vehicle like Subaru and up can drive the .7 miles. If I made a mistake in these directions you are now 14.4 miles in on some logging road and you are doomed.

took a quick zoom down to the Greenwater area and up to Kelly Butte to examine the old lookout there. I've heard that next year it'll start to be refurbished with a possible eye to becoming a rental. Drove up 70 and then 7030(the sign is gone but is an obvious major tributary of 70) The last mile of 'road' to the trail is probably only good if you have a high clearance vehicle. There is barely room to turn around at the end...room for about 5 cars max... The trail is an avalanche gully at the start...some gracious soul has left 75 feet of yellow plastic rope tied up to a tree hanging down this to help you up the hardest part. At the top, a switchback trail climbs the butte until the grade eases out. Lots of red huckleberry bushes and vistas of Mount Rainier make breathing stops worthy. After reaching the summit plateau, the trail makes a beeline straight for the lookout through fields of small firs and beargrass clumps. The lookout becomes visible a quarter mile away. The lookout itself is in pretty decent condition considering it hasn't been used in over 20 years....the structure is stable, but the door is loose and all the windows have been broken out. The original lookout furniture is all there, but so is 20 years of trash, bottles, cans. Graffitti has been liberally scratched on every available surface and some fool has built a fire at the base of the rock ramp to the lookout(much much too close for an aged wood structure.) The views are good but mottled by clearcuts. The power line up the valley through Lester is in the valley just north. Mount Baker and Glacier Peak poke their heads above the skyline of the Snowqualmie Massif....You can even see downtown Seattle and the Olympics quite well if the weather cooperates. Kelly Butte is a worthy short hike. The trail is is desperate need of WTA expertise.( by the way, it's only 1.2 miles and 900 foot of gain.) The lookout should be saved and cleaned up and honored as a historic place and revered instead of trashed. Go lightly there and urge its protection.

It was the best possible year for a winter ascent of Kelly Butte. (Green Trails Lester and Greenwater). We drove up the Whistler Creek road to the 3 mile post. We soon put on snowshoes and walked a little over a mile to the Twin Camps junction turning left for a long road walk to approximately the summer trailhead. Since I had not done this peak before (too short for a summer trip) I had no idea where the trail actually began. However, it really didn't matter. From the road end we just headed up the steep south side winding between rocky outcrops until reaching the more gradual slopes to the lookout. The summit area was a wonderland of snow covered trees and wind sculpured snow patterns. It was a fabulous day except for the 40 or so mph wind blowing the spindrift horizontally into our faces and scouring off a layer or two of skin. Total gain with ups and downs was 3000', about 10-11 miles and 8 hours round trip. Almost every bit if the snow had fallen within the last day or two.

I did this trip to an abandoned lookout two years ago, and I wanted to go back.The directions from two years ago worked perfectly, except that there is a four-way unmarked intersection where Road # 7030 is the left turn.Fortunately, I remembered the way. Here are the instructions: Drive 2 miles south from Greenwater on Highway 410. Turn left (east) on FS 70 and drive 8.3 miles to road 7030. Follow it--don't lose it--it deteriorates a little but is still driveable. At 6.5 an older dirt road takes off left. Park here. Walk to end of road about a mile to the end, where you will see a dirt track leading up. (A four-wheeler with high clearance could probably drive this far.) There is a steep cliff at this point that leads to the trail, but some good soul had placed a cable there that we used two years ago. The scramble up the cliff seems steeper than two years ago, and the cliff face has eroded, but the steel cable has been replaced by a yellow climbing rope that is much longer and easier to grasp. After the initial steep and narrow switchbacks, the trail levels off to a gentle rise through a huge expanse of blueberry bushes. On this day, the leaves had turned a gorgeous shade of deep red, and the blueberries were black and so ripe that they fell off the bushes when we brushed past them. We were so full of blueberries that we had no room for lunch. We sat on the porch of the abandoned lookout admiring the view and hoping that the cloud obscuring the top of Mt. Rainier would blow away. When Mt. Rainier was totally obscured we came down again, eating a few more blueberries along the way.