{"id":711,"date":"2019-10-02T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/?p=711"},"modified":"2019-10-09T17:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T17:51:59","slug":"gold-butte-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2019\/10\/02\/gold-butte-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall at Gold Butte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, September 13 &#8211; Sunday, September 15, 2019<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: for tips on staying at Gold Butte see my <a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2016\/07\/14\/return-to-gold-butte\/\">2016 post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Greg and I returned to the Gold Butte for the fourth time this fall. After a <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/26\/phantom-natural-bridge\/\">wet hike<\/a> to Phantom Natural Bridge, we drove to the trailhead for Gold Butte. The signboard has a four-year-old sign about fire restrictions dating back to 2015. Been up here lately, Forest Service?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778716326_a6ae247b62_c.jpg\" alt=\"Old sign\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778345233_86ae9e6566_c.jpg\" alt=\"Old sign\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After hiking up the steep road and then hiking up the steep trail, we were glad to finally arrive:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755064696_bef29fd148_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte Lookout\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We had been socked-in during the hike earlier, but the clouds had finally burned off and we had views from the lookout. Mt. Jefferson:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755261562_24dfebe2d1_c.jpg\" alt=\"View from Gold Butte Lookout\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mt. Washington, the Three Sisters, and Bachelor Mountain:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755065211_b1ff14cee1_c.jpg\" alt=\"View from Gold Butte Lookout\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After a relaxing evening and yummy dinner, we enjoyed the sunset:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755259767_a1d4899655_c.jpg\" alt=\"Sunset at Gold Butte\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755063261_a0cbe6eecc_c.jpg\" alt=\"Sunset at Gold Butte\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t know this when we made our reservations, but we had a full moon on Friday the 13th. This meant that the stars weren&#8217;t very bright, but it was still pretty cool:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755258597_9627bef5ee_c.jpg\" alt=\"Full moon at Gold Butte\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I woke up that later in the night I discovered that an inversion had formed and that we were above the cloud layer. Neato!<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48775755261_16e0c5cc61_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48775401828_b06134aee8_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48775938187_1de965411e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The inversion was still there in the morning:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48775394283_abd7db8211_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48775395463_e0299696db_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778347068_04e2f93657_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte Lookout\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778902172_c597536225_c.jpg\" alt=\"Above the inversion\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Battle Ax Mountain, which we hiked up later that day:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778363433_9ebf7cd71f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Battle Ax Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are some vine maples up there and they looked brilliant in the sunshine:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778900512_00ac672cd9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Fall color\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778891682_88b0e58a5e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Fall color\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After breakfast we hiked back down to the car, drove over to Elk Lake, then <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/27\/battle-ax-mountain-2\/\">hiked up Battle Ax Mountain<\/a>. Then we drove back and hiked back up to the lookout. The woodpile is still at the end of the road, and not up in the woodshed:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48755066421_7657f4684c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Woodpile\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We had our hatchet with us so we split some kindling:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778356608_cc204fd11e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Splinting kindling\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was nothing with which to haul the firewood so we improvised:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778714081_91152587db_c.jpg\" alt=\"Firewood bag\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778344498_b5a095d711_c.jpg\" alt=\"Firewood bag\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was a beautiful evening on Saturday:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778713016_fc12b41caf_c.jpg\" alt=\"Mt. Jefferson\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Moonrise:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778895607_78e9dbeaa9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Moonrise\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><br \/>\nWe knew a weather system was coming in Sunday morning. The clouds were over us when we woke up, but the leading edge was just east of us and the rising sun poked through for a little while. It was gorgeous:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778707361_dc79472590_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold Butte sunrise\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But it didn&#8217;t last, and soon enough we were socked-in with rain and clouds:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778709981_589c7da97b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Cloudy morning\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We packed up and had a wet hike back to the car:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48778886772_857fc5dcc1_c.jpg\" alt=\"Hiking down\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It poured down rain for the entire drive back to Portland. Many areas got an inch of rain this day! I&#8217;m glad the rain didn&#8217;t arrive any sooner and that we had nice weather and views for most of our stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, September 13 &#8211; Sunday, September 15, 2019 Note: for tips on staying at Gold Butte see my 2016 post.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2019\/10\/02\/gold-butte-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Fall at Gold Butte<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-willamette-national-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}