Newberry 50 - Running 50 buttes south of Bend

📘 Running

This is my big running project started in spring of 2022.

Newberry Crater sits south of Bend, Oregon. Dotting the slopes are several small cinder cones. I picked 50 of these to summit.

Caltopo link: Buttes - CalTopo

I did 27 of these buttes during spring 2022 before breaking for my summer running in other areas. I hope to pick up this project later.

Strava Activities

Ratings

Tier 1 - The Best

Tier 2 - The Good

Tier 3 - The Okayest

Tier 4 - The Truly Lame

Log

  1. Pilot - The only thing wrong with Pilot is that we know it too well. Pilot Butte is surprisingly awesome - 360 degree trail with views every direction as you climb, a great view from the top, accessible to anyone, nice trail.
  2. Cabin - View to south 180 degrees. Not much of an experience to climb. Easy approach, but avoid shooters by approaching from the direction of the shooting pit on the south.
  3. Coyote - Great view of the local area. Also easy to approach, avoid shooters by approaching from direction of shooting pit. Not much of a climb, but I caught sunrise at the top and it was really pretty.
  4. Horse - Short but awesome user trail circling the crater to top. Decent view and a cool old tree at the top!
  5. Bessie - One of the greats! Another awesome trail with good views in every direction and an amazing view from the top. Saw an eagle while climbing. Easy to drive to and park at bottom.
  6. Huntington - You have to orphan it, or cross Hwy 97, or run a long out and back via the underpass to hit this one. I did the latter. My reward was a littered shooting pit at the bottom, a quick climb, and no view. There is a weather station. This one is lame.
  7. Green Mountain - Fun user trail from north (lower) summit to south (higher) summit. No view. When leaving, just backtrack on the trail; I bushwhacked down to the bottom and it saved a bit of distance but not any time. Cool area despite lack of view.
  8. Lava - Fun to run up the road and again, good views in every direction as you climb. Awesome crater at top. I did the crater trail all the way around and climbed the fire tower.
  9. Kelsey - Fun climb up a sometimes-trail on the north side up to the ridge. There is a bench at the summit and a good view to the northeast.
  10. Balbali - Climb cross country through the woods on the north side. No view at summit, but nearby there is a decent view to the south. Possible to thread your way through manazanita on the south side.
  11. 5578 - Shame this one is unnamed. It has a cool crater and some lava to climb. It definitely beats some named ones that I've already done.
  12. Ikt - Climb through woods up to ridge. No view right at the summit, but some views toward the west from the ridge. There is a stick marking the summit and a geocache nearby.
  13. Klawhop - This one was a good surprise. Approached from a road on the side that goes up a short distance. More lava to climb before reaching the crater, then traverse the rim over to summit where there is a bench on a cool lava outcropping. Good view toward west! Two craters, interesting area.
  14. 5461 - No view at all. I climbed through a bunch of manzanita but on the north side the woods are easier to traverse.
  15. Luna - User trail to top. Steep but easy to follow. Probably the best view so far in every direction. Could see all the buttes I've done so far. Bench at bottom.
  16. 5171 - Fun cross country climb from the NW to avoid manzanita. Not much for views at the top, but I did enjoy this one.
  17. 5624 - Hard to believe this one is so high. Not great views. Again approached from NW to avoid manzanita.
  18. Nota - Nota and the four other buttes nearby all have summit trails or roads. Mostly dirt bike trails in the area which are a bit rough (and soft surface). The view on Nota is on the way up from the south, not at the summit. The trail climb was fun! Down trail to west.
  19. 5262 - Followed dirt bike trail which climbs rather steeply from NE. Again not much view at the top but a nice area. Down to west.
  20. Jane - This is not the official name of this butte, but there is a sign at the top. VERY steep climb up dirt bike trails from NE to the ridge, but then the view is incredible! Summit has a few trees but this one was a big surprise. Down to NW.
  21. Sugar Pine - Ahhhh finally a road and a decent grade. Sugar Pine has a radio tower at the top and is pretty prominent, but has limited views. Better views on the way up.
  22. Ada - I followed a dirt bike trail STRAIGHT up the hill from north. It was ridiculously steep then ended abruptly just short of the summit. So I bushwhacked through, but there are other trails that go up and over. I followed one down the west side of the butte, it was also very steep.
  23. Kide - How is this supposed to be pronounced? It's small but it has decent views and is a fun climb. Approached from road on west side.
  24. Swamp Wells - Not much view, but it's a fun climb. Approached from road on east side that dead ends against the side of the hill. Then it's easy cross country travel to the ridge, which I followed to the summit. I descended the north side to the horse camp, but it was much brushier than the way up.
  25. 5780 - Climbed up from the horse camp on the south side. It's difficult to discern the actual summit point since it's quite flat on top. Descended on east side which may be less steep. Easy up and down compared to many cross-country hills, but no view at all. That said, I want to pause on this one a bit. More than any other butte this is probably the one that inspired this project. When I first ran out here on the Swamp Wells trail, I noticed this butte and wondered what it was called, only to find it had no name. It always kind of stuck with me, and grew into a larger effort to find names - and eventually to summit - all the buttes out here.
  26. Fuzztail - an actual trail! A great view on top! This one was an instant top-tier butte, somewhat unexpectedly.
  27. Lava Top - Awesome views, amazing lava rim, huge crater. But I had some bad weather chasing me and was not able to spend as much time as I wanted at this one. I'll need to go back. Approach from SE - get to the right of the lava bumpout on the south side of the butte. I went down to the west but that was dumb, should have just gone down the way I came up.