Teanaway Butte

Teanaway Butte is a prominent peak and former fire lookout site with stunning views of the Mount Stuart Range, the greater Teanaway area, and Mount Rainier. This hike is best enjoyed as a snowshoe adventure in winter, or a spring hike when other mountain trails are still buried in snow but wildflowers are already blooming in this area.

Teanaway Butte offers expansive views all along the 4.7-mile path to its summit. Start this hike at an unmarked dirt lot where Forest Service Road 230 meets the Middle Fork Teanaway Road. This dirt road will serve as your trail for the majority of the hike.

Head North and climb uphill steeply through pine and fir trees. The tree coverage eventually stops as the road enters clearcut areas where the views to the south begin. Mount Rainier is the most prominent and recognizable landmark on a clear day. The trail occasionally reenters the trees, but the views generally improve as you climb, opening to the east and west first. Ignore any side paths and follow the main road as it crests and then follows a ridge leading toward the peak in a generally northward direction. 

At 3.5 miles, the road forks. Continue on the broader road heading uphill. Soon the craggy, towering peaks of the Stuart Range come into view to the north. 

After 4.5 miles, the road finally ends. Where it does, a narrow, rocky, switchbacking but short trail continues a quarter mile to the summit and former lookout site. Enjoy the 360 views before retracing your steps to the trailhead.