Yellow Butte is south of Drain, OR and seems to be open. A topo map will show the roads to get there. Generally, heading south from Drain, find West Rd to Cedar Rd. This will lead you to Drain Section Rd. Turn left off of Drain Section onto Hayhurst Rd. Turn right from Hayhurst onto Skelley Rd. Follow this to a poorly marked Andrews Creek Rd. Follow Andrews Ck, staying on the generally "main" dirt road.
I had intended to activate this summit on December 30, 2016. Another off limits summit.
Peak 5740 is one of the handful along the north side of Hwy 20 - west of Mtn Home Idaho. Although, there was deep snow, this turned out to be a good winter bonus point summit.
Please see this detailed blog on the first activation of Mount Rainier by Doug-W1DMH.
http://w1dmh.blogspot.com/2014/06/rainier-w7wrs-001-sota.html#comment-form
I found that the turnoff at Lizard Creek Road off of Highway 20 was not marked by any sign. However, it is about 0.75 east of MP57 and exactly 33.0 miles from the Millican Store if you are coming from Bend.
I finally got an activation completed today (Dec 1, 2016). I chose a relatively easy summit that is within 20 minutes of my home, Peak 1094. This peak is in the "back yard" of some rural/suburban houses and is apparently owned by a timber company. I asked for permission to hike from a neighbor. He felt that it was ok as long as I wasn't hunting. Asking first keeps it above board.
Green Peak is a 2717’ summit that is west of Bellfountain, OR. It looked inviting on the topo maps, so I traced out a route and headed out (coming from my failed activation of 3060 that same morning).
Roger, ND7PA, reports that he reached this summit from a parking area along Marys Peak Rd. That route required a difficult bushwhack of a mile or so through the forest. Bushwhacks of this type in western Oregon can be very challenging, so I looked for a different route. The topo maps show a series of roads that approach the summit from the west.
Even leaving Bigfoot aside...
...Southern Oregon has a lot to offer. If you'd like to try SOTA from exotic Oregon, there's probably no easier place to do it than Palmer Butte, W7O/SC-185. It's off US-101 south of Brookings, the first major town north of the California border.
Directions:
Take US-101 to around Milepost 357, south of Brookings, OR. Turn East at this Signal: