Skip to main content

Chelan Butte, Chelan Washington




























I have to confess, I work so close to this trail that it is almost embarrassing to admit that this is the first time I have ever hiked it. I have for years watched the seasons change on this Butte as I come and go to work, had big plans to some day tackle the trail after work....Right, not going to happen. To tired, to lazy, didn't bring the proper clothing all the good excuses. So when my niece called me and let me know that she was on her way up from Oregon and her and my nephew wanted to join us on a hike. Preferably close, due to activities they had planned for later in the day. I threw out a few options, this being the hike with the most elevation gain, but with the nicest views and flowers blooming, she jumped all over it. So one of the only hikes that some how I managed to squeeze in to a extremely busy April, we left the house at a fairly descent time. With only a 20 minute drive ahead of us, we only had to make one stop for a morning coffee and off we were. The trail starts to climb very shortly after crossing the road and heading up the jeep trail. After gaining some elevation you finally get to a spot where even though you are still heading up hill you can begin to breath easier. The kids just blew up the trail past me, I had flowers to admire and views to take pictures of. Didn't have anything to do with the fact I needed a break every now and then to breath. The views are really pretty awesome of Lake Chelan, and the town it self. You get a great view of the Lake from Chelan all the Way to Stormy, and a nice view of the Chelan Sawtooths. As you reach higher elevation you get a pretty good view up and down the Columbia River and the Waterville Plateau. Lots of flowers were blooming when we took this hike, pretty amazing that you can't see the color spots from down below. Some years you can really tell when the balsam roots are blooming from road level as you head into town. We did not reach the top, after figuring our time frame and looking at the next two very steep sections of trail we took lunch on a beautiful mound of rocks and admired the views. Very enjoyable hike, gives you a descent work out going up and down, lots of flowers blooming in April. When the Butte dry's up it would be a really hot hike.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go.  One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains.  This was a spur of the moment overnight trip.  It was so needed and such a beautiful time.  Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama.  Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes.  Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment.   I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask.  The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top.  Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp.  It was truly an incredible evening, hiked aroun...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yellow Jacket Sno-Park.......................

December 29th, 2012 came along with some beautiful weather in the Mazama area....broken blue skys and a nice 21 degrees.....with my little brother and his wife up visiting through the holiday season we ventured out to play in the snow.....We originally headed up to snowshoe the Cedar Creek trail....but Hwy 20 wasn't plowed past the first sign at the bottom.....and when we came across the Early Winters bridge we could see trucks and cars parked on both sides of the road....somewhere between 25-40 rigs.....lots of snowmobile trailers.....we decided that we needed to locate another snowshoeing spot with a little less traffic since my brother wanted to do a little snowboarding if possible......so we headed to Yellow Jacket Sno-Park....Large parking area with just a few vehicles parked....we strapped on our gear and headed up the trail....nice easy hike up a groomed snowmobile track....lots of places to step off the trail and explore...we pretty much stuck to the trail on the way up.....
Post a Comment
Read more

Not all trails are created equal

 Beautiful big views, abundance of flowers, snow capped mountains all around and singing birds.  I love this hike when the flowers are blooming. This is a hike you can do multiple times in the spring and there is always new flowers blooming.  The mountain views are incredible, a nice view of the valley floor looking up towards Mazama and back down towards Twisp.  So much to see, hear and enjoy.  This is the perfect hike for an evening adventure, not to long, a fairly easy hike, the birds are very active and keep you company as you make the loop.  These pictures are only from one side of the loop, I ran out of good light to complete it since I stopped for every flower along the way.  When the balsam root is blooming it is a beautiful display of golden flowers, intermixed with lupine and larkspur.  I have hiked this trail many times over the years and am always amazed by natures incredible beauty. ...
Post a Comment
Read more