What the hell is a "Butte"?

With a name like Eugene Franklin Skinner, you are pretty much destined to do something famous just so you can name something after yourself. Eugene moved a lot when he was younger, from NY to Wisconsin, back to NY, and then to Illinois...to be a sheriff....weird. He wasn't done yet. I imagine him waking up and rolling over to his wife and saying something like, "Hey babe, I think we should take that flimsy wagon out front and travel the length of the damn country and go to some foreign land filled with pissed off Native Americans who hate White people." Now, it probably didn't go down like that, but that's how I visualized it. He and his wife landed in California, and then, just as he always does, Eugene decided to move north. The local Native American tribe, Kalapuya, told him to find a hill to build his house on because of the floods. So, the Skinner family chose a relatively small hill, a butte if you will, and the cabin was made on Skinner's Butte. FINALLY, the guy's poor wife had a place she could call home, in the soon to be Eugene, Oregon.

 Of course, when I was hiking Skinner's, I wasn't thinking about the history of its name, or why there was a random stone fireplace on the trail. The fireplace defines rustic. The stone was whitewashed in a few spots and held together by the original caulk used during its construction over a hundred years ago. Each space in between the rocks was home to moss and a few of it's plant relatives. Ashes filled the fireplace floor as it still gets used, probably by the ridiculously large homeless population in Eugene. Anyway, I had no desire for historical background becasue I was completely blown away by the beauty of this hike.

QUICK BACKGROUND: I'm from Texas. That should cover just about everything.

Trees larger than anything I could have imagined, grass greener than I've seen, and colors that I didn't know existed. THERE WAS A SOLID YELLOW TREE, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!? This was seriously one of the cooler hikes I've taken in my 19 years, and to have a camera along side was truly perfect.

I have never felt closer to God than my time here in Oregon, and the views I saw from this relatively small "mountain" should explain exactly why. His creations continue to blow my mind as I travel around the most beautiful state in the country.

We hadn't reached the top when I saw this great little path set with blocks of wood. I followed the orange and yellow, leaf littered stairs where it stopped at this beautiful view by a bench. This was surreal for me.

The peak was anti-climactic, due to the frequent fog cover, but I was still happy to call this place my home.

I'll definitely be hiking Skinner's again.