Overview
Special thanks to ericwillhite for providing this photo
Kelly Butte is one of the more famous lookout tower in Washington State. The actual mountain is moderately popular despite being in a remote area of the Cascade Mountains and only being reached by forest road. It is highly recomended that a high clearance vehicle is used to make the trek to the trailhead. It has one of the better views of Mount Rainier in the state and is a very popular hike with families. At 3.5 miles roundtrip and under 1000 feet of elevation on now a very well maintained trail many average hikers can easily make the summit in under an hour and slower hikers can make it in under two hours.
With the new section of the trail up to Kelly Butte this trail is a very easy YDS Class 1 trail to the summit. This is though a recent addition that has happen in the past three year. Beforehand you had to go up a Class 3 gully with a fixed rope on it for full support to make sure that you did not kick rock on someone below you. The rope used to be the standard way up the mountain and is still an optional way up Kelly Butte which I personal like to do when ascending the mountain. It will meet up with the new trail 250 feet up the mountain.
As for the lookout for the long time the lookout was in serious disrepair. But in 2007, thanks to Bob Adler and of the volunteerswho have helped him, the lookout is in the process of being repaired. One of the major steps happened in 2007 with the roof being put on Kelly Butte. As of 7/5/10 they are still revoveting the lookout and the lookout now is in much better conditions. I want all of them for there hard work on renovating this gem.
Getting There
From Route 410 in Greenwater: Just south of Greenwater turn east on NAD 70 and stay on it roughly 7.5 east. Stay on the road until you run into NAD 7030 where you want to head north (left) and follow the road as it rises up all the up to a gap where there will be a T way intersection. You want to head left and stay on 7030 all the way to Kelly Butte. You will pass another intersection where you will want to veer right onto 7030. Take it all the way to the end (or possibly where the is still passable (recently loggers have been putting tank traps on the road to prevent traffic from getting to close to the peak. It should be noted that this is a heavily logged area.Red Tape
None.Camping
Camping is allowed at Kelly Butte at the lookout. Please though respect this special gem and leave no trace here. There have so many man hours to replace this special lookout and I would hate to see this place vandalized again.External Links
Here is the best websites for conditions on Kelly Butte and other mountains in the regionImages
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