Great Hike. You can drive the road as described elsewhere, or you can hike a trail up the from the NE corner of the butte. There is a fairly new parking lot on the Southeast edge of town on E. Iowa Ave. - see map here - http://www.chelanpud.org/documents/ChelanRiverwalk_Reach1Trails.pdf Directly across Iowa Ave. from this parking lot is a jeep trail that seems to head straight up the butte. It does! about a quarter mile up the track, there is a nice new sign which points off to the right and says "Chelan Butte - 4 miles" "Elephant Head Butte - 2 miles" If you take the trail, it's 3.62 miles to the top using the trail. About 3.9 from the parking lot according to Garmin. There are 2 well placed and well maintained benches along the route. Not much shade and very steep at places. I of course ignored the sign and hiked straight up the side of the hill and met the real trail on the ridge-line. I thought I might be the only crazy person who would try this, but found a couple on their way up when I was headed down that had done the same thing! I would not recommend this. I took the trail down and it was very pleasant, although steep in parts. Elevation gain 2735+/- feet in 3.9 miles. (Top is 3835, lake is 1100) I met a BLM worker at the top who was surveying the trail for endangered plants or the like as there may be an effort to widen or add switchbacks to the trail??? Great Hike! Bring water and enjoy the 360 degree views of Lake Chelan, the Columbia, the Central Cascades and everything out to the horizon.

Was in Chelan for Memorial Day Weekend with a bunch of friends and we were looking for a easy to moderate difficulty day hike. We decided on the Chelan Butte because it was so close to the downtown area and had significant elevation gain. We followed the directions on the site and by popular demand (in the car) we pulled over not long after getting off the paved road. In actuality we should have kept driving farther on, up to the state park sign. Instead I would say we added a good 1.5 miles to the trip in each direction making it overall about 7 miles. It was a hot and sunny day and most of us in the group were prepared for the hike ahead. The whole trip up is on an access road for the radio/cellular and hence is not too rocky or uneven. We got all the way up to the top an noticed that there was in fact a parking pull off just before the cell towers (which was where some people did drive up to). The view is well worth the hike (even parking where we did) and it offers spectacular views of both Lake Chelan and the Columbia River. If you plan on hiking most of the way up the Chelan Butte Rd (and continuing to the cell towers, which is Butte Lookout Rd) certainly bring some water and snacks as you will likely work up a sweat getting up there.

While in Chelan for a nursing conference, we tried to find a local hike that we could accomplish in the morning and still make it to our noon meetings. I'm doing 47 different hikes in my 47th year. The day was shaping up to be a nice, sunny day and we decided to do the Chelan Butte hike. The book, "Day Hiking Central Cascades" gave great directions, however we found it difficult to find the "forested gully" where we were supposed to park and begin our walk up the service road. Once we came to the sign that said "Northwest Forest Pass Required", we figured that we were close. Continuing to follow the very bumpy, washed out gravel road we ended up at the top, so we parked and walked around a bit. The views were amazing over both sides, with Lake Chelan to one side and the river and farmlands to the other. It was quite windy, and therefore dusty, up there. Apparently it's a spot for hang gliders to launch from, although we didn't see any. Although the views were amazing,it wasn't really my favorite kind of place to hike. I think vehicles with low clearance would have a difficult drive over parts of this service road. There were deep washouts and large rocks jutting up from the roadway. I was saddened to see the amount of litter up there, too. Friends that were also at the conference said they've found a way to hike up to the Butte without having to utilize the service road, however we didn't have time to check those trails out, maybe another time. I think Spring would be the best season for this hike.

Just for fun. Adding a photo for comparison. 2011/1926