Spring and Green Buttes are 4 pointer drive ups in Southern Deschutes County, OR. Both are accessed via Forest Road 22 in LaPine, OR, a nicely paved forest road. At about 10 miles, we turned South on NFDR2220 towards Spring Butte. At 6 miles there is a short right then left juke on NFDR2430 and NFDR800. Follow road 800 for about a mile to the gate that restricts access to the top. Park here and walk the remaining 1/4 mile to the top.

Spring Butte has what appears to be a recently retired fire lookout atop its 5464 ft summit, along with a relatively new and well cared for vault toilet. There are nice views to the South and West and a wide open area with some large tree stumps to operate from.

Unfortunately, the lookout is inaccessible due to what the sign said was “lack of sufficient grounding in the case of lightening strike”.

We worked 2M and HF. The bands were very bad and we only made a dozen contacts between the two of us, all on HF, so don’t count on 2M.

Green Butte is a short drive away, about 5 miles peak to peak. After backtracking down to the cinder road, there are several options to transit. We took what looked like forest track that had been dozed into a fire break but there are other roads nearby that could be in better shape.

The last mile is steep and off camber but should be passable by a Subaru or an adventurous Prius driver. The top is flat and uninteresting with no views. We setup next to the Bronco. Again, bands were not cooperating so we took turns working CW. Amy, AG7GP, was out on Anderson Peak in Southern OR with a couple newly minted young hams. We were able to work Summit to Summit on 10M SSB, very roughly. This was not a destination summit so much as an easy extra 4 points while exploring the area.

Spring and Green Buttes make for a nice afternoon adventure if you looking for an easy day.