Sutter County Highpoint Trip Report
South Butte
Date: November 11, 2001
Author: T. Watrous
The Sutter Buttes are on private property. Unless you know a land owner, The Middle Mountain
Foundation provides the only legally-feasible public access to the Sutter Buttes. This report provides an
update on the Middle Mountain Foundation guided hike called
the summit ascent and additional information on South Butte access.
As of November 2001, the summit ascent that the Middle Mountain Foundation provides goes to the North
Butte which is not the actual high point of Sutter County. The cost is $30 per person. Furthermore,
the hike does not actually go to the very top of the North Butte. Hikers are led to a small summit plateau
directly next to a summit block on the North Butte. The summit block looks like 30-40 feet of fairly easy
class 3 climbing. Unfortunately, the Middle Mountain Foundation guides won't permit you to attempt the
summit block. The "summit ascent" hike is still a nice hike, but if tagging the very top of North Butte is
your real objective you will be disappointed.
The approach and trail head for this hike is on private property. The following directions are for
informational purposes only. The approach is from East Butte and AHLF Roads. The trail head is
approximately 10.6 miles from the starting point at the Museum in Yuba City. You go through a series of gates,
several of which are locked. The trail head that the Middle Mountain Foundation uses is located very
near the Dean Ranch house.
I was able to glean some information about the South Butte from the MMF guides. Some of this
information conflicts with information provided by Gary Suttle in "California County Summits" for whatever reason.
Apparently, the Middle Mountain Foundation has never led official hikes to the summit of the South
Butte and they don't plan to offer hikes to the South Butte in the future. I was told that the MMF directors
had only been up there once as part of a public relations thing with the communications company that owns
the property on South Butte. A friend of mine called the MMF last year and was told that the MMF is
working on access to the South Butte. The impression I got from the guides was that this was not the case.
The South Butte apparently has a fence (barbed wire?) around the top of it. I was told that the road on the
south side doesn't go the very top (this is confirmed by the topo map) and that tower workers use something
like a tram to haul equipment to the very top. After the hike, we drove the road around the Buttes to the
south side. From the south side there is an obvious road that appears to be the most direct way to the South Butte.
However, there is a large no trespassing sign that says that credentials will be checked and violators
will be prosecuted.