{"id":2022,"date":"2017-06-10T18:02:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=2022"},"modified":"2017-06-10T18:02:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:02:57","slug":"gray-butte-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2017\/06\/10\/gray-butte-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Butte Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Memorial Day Greg and I hiked part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/wps\/portal\/fsinternet\/cs\/recarea?ss=110607&amp;navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&amp;cid=FSE_003738&amp;navid=110240000000000&amp;pnavid=110000000000000&amp;position=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&amp;recid=39138&amp;ttype=recarea&amp;pname=Gray%20Butte%20Trail%20(\">Gray Butte Trail<\/a>. What a great little hike! Easy and level with a lot of views and wildflowers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4200\/35089137221_d1b213e5ec_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089137221_d1b213e5ec_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Following directions in Sullivan&#8217;s hiking guide we parked at the base of Gray Butte and hiked south towards Smith Rock State Park. The trail starts off in the trees:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4260\/35089158421_11acfe5184_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089158421_11acfe5184_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But then quickly pops out into the open. We could see Gray Butte itself towering above us. There are no trails that go up there, but there is a road:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4287\/35053595312_41553c3cee_c.jpg\" alt=\"35053595312_41553c3cee_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You get a lot of bang for your buck on this hike. The views are stupendous almost right from the beginning.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4232\/35089155081_ec10f42497_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089155081_ec10f42497_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And there are plenty of spring wildflowers too:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4250\/35089145011_52aa6c0e78_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089145011_52aa6c0e78_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4285\/34410278443_95dffb8610_c.jpg\" alt=\"34410278443_95dffb8610_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4252\/35179361846_a3656309d2_c.jpg\" alt=\"35179361846_a3656309d2_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4269\/35053885492_617b23734d_c.jpg\" alt=\"35053885492_617b23734d_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4218\/35053869612_69869c127d_c.jpg\" alt=\"35053869612_69869c127d_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4285\/34375252504_744085f47c_c.jpg\" alt=\"34375252504_744085f47c_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was REALLY hot, so this area where a bunch of bitterroot were blooming was our turnaround point:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4278\/34410267683_4d6fc5d84c_c.jpg\" alt=\"34410267683_4d6fc5d84c_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>However, while Greg was taking hundreds of bitterroot photos I hiked a tiny bit further to a high point just ahead where I could see the tippy top of Mt. Hood:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4288\/35089454571_89c83f4265_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089454571_89c83f4265_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As well as all the mountains spread out before me. Yowza!!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4230\/34410260003_b207a5ea47_c.jpg\" alt=\"34410260003_b207a5ea47_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking back at Gray Butte. The trail we hiked in on can be seen on the slope on the right:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4290\/35089448601_87defe0e5f_c.jpg\" alt=\"35089448601_87defe0e5f_c.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We would have gone further, but it was just too hot. We had also originally planned to do a short stretch of a different trail described in Sullivan&#8217;s book, but we were sapped of energy from the heat, plus the clouds were gathering quickly, so we headed home. This is a cool area with a number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/Internet\/FSE_DOCUMENTS\/stelprd3794947.pdf\">trails<\/a>. We&#8217;d like to explore around here more, preferably when it&#8217;s not so hot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Memorial Day Greg and I hiked part of the Gray Butte Trail. What a great little hike! Easy and<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2017\/06\/10\/gray-butte-trail\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gray Butte Trail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2023,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions\/2023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}