Blogs

Calamity Butte is an active Lookout in the Malheur Forest. It has two lookout buildings, an historic one on the ground and a newer one on a tower. It is located off of US-395 between John Day and Burns.

To get there drive 395 to 43.9282, -118.9323 and turn west onto forest road 2840, AKA Calamity Lookout Road. Turn North on to FR-28 then immediately left onto 2860. The road is rough from here. We did it with 8” of clearance and AWD. The track is available on sotl.as.

King Mountain is a drive up off of US-395 between John Day and Burns.

To get there turn east off of 395 at 43.7862, -118.8654 onto good gravel road 2820.

Stay on this road until the turn up to king at 43.7872, -118.8655.

It is now approximately 2.5 miles and 700 feet of gain to the top. We were able to drive all of it in our Rav4. Plenty of parking opportunities so you can drive as far as you and your vehicle are comfortable.

There is no poison oak on this summit, at least not that I was able to identify, and it is my mortal enemy, so I've gotten pretty good at predicting where I'll find it and identifying it from an appreciable distance. I just wanted to clarify that as a previous post claimed to have encountered poison oak. 

This summit is a horrible bushwhack, and like many of the summits in this part of the Gifford Pinchot, it's barely worth the points considering the effort it takes to climb it. It's steep and brushy and about the only nice thing I can say about it is there's no devil's club to contend with. You would think, upon finally obtaining the activation zone, that the return trip would be easier, but it is not. It's worse because you can't see where you're putting your feet. 

Per WW7D there are numerous ways to get to Ski Acres Hill, including walking up the ski slopes. The ski area is open to hikers in the summer.  

The "back way" from Hyak involves navigating some gnarly FS roads and does not involve going on any private property. The PCT also passes 1/3 of a mile (and 1000' gain) to the west of the summit. One could take the PCT and bushwhack up to the summit.

https://w7mtb.blog/2025/08/03/shukash-butte-first-activation-august-2025/

Sawtooth is a glorious peak; nice hik

There is a SW “short cut” for Huffman peak by taking the well maintained logging roads in Washington

Here is a shortcut to Big Huckleberry relative to that described here: http://www.pnwsota.org/node/371