Park Butte

Date: May 10, 2024

Distance: 14.77km

Elevation gain: 717m

Park Butte is a small peak on the southwestern flanks of Mount Baker. It offers excellent views of the main Baker massif, and a historic fire lookout, built in 1932, still stands.

The trail is accessed from the NF 13 logging road. The turnoff is off Highway 20, south of Mount Baker near Concrete, so the drive from Vancouver took over three hours. A Northwest Forest Pass is required to park along the road. When I got there, the last 1km was still snowed in so I parked as far as I could and strapped my snowshoes on.

This is a very popular trail. The first section was broken out and easy to follow as it passed through a meadow, then climbed along a creek. It was a very hot day and snow was quite soft, so I was postholing even in snowshoes.

Around 2km from the trailhead, near the base of a lava flow, the Park Butte trail crosses Rocky Creek. The lava flow was an even more well traveled route, with many parties of mountaineers ascending it, so I missed the turn at first and had to double back. The creek crossing was manageable, although the creek was slightly higher on the return trip as more snow melted.

Past the creek, the trail switchbacked up a steep slope with patchy snow before reaching a plateau. From here the views of Baker were excellent.

The route heads northwest, crosses a small valley, passes below the majestic Cathedral Crag, then turns southwest along another plateau. This area had been baking in the sun for a while and the snow was extremely soft. I followed some snowmobiling tracks but still had to deal with postholes at almost every step.

The route curved around a subpeak of Park Butte, then climbed to the ridge on the southern side, traversing a somewhat steep slope. The sun was relentless and at one point I made a snow angel to cool down. Eventually I reached the fire tower, precariously perched on the edge of a cliff. The summit offers an excellent viewpoint of Mount Baker and the Black Buttes (Colfax, Lincoln, and Seward), an extinct volcano much older than Baker.

After eating lunch at the tower I returned the way I came, following my tracks to avoid postholing.