Trail contains no technical obstacles
Get yourself to Keno, Oregon and you'll be within a few miles of a couple of good summits. Chase Mountain has a lookout and is a drive up in most any vehicle. Keno is about 12 miles SW of Klamath Falls on the Green Springs Highway 66, or about half that distance to the NW from Highway 97 on the Keno-Worden Road from the wide spot that is Worden, Oregon.
Here's a sort of easy hike close in to Klamath Falls, Oregon. You'll keep your car clean as the trailhead access is paved all the way into the parking lot.
This is an easy hike in the Washington Olympics that is not far from Highway 101. The views should be great on a nice day.
Mount Walker is a nice drive-up or summit hike just off Highway 101 on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. There is a good view of Puget Sound from the summit and thus it makes for a good spot to try your hand at VHF/UHF contacts.
Highway 12 between Morton and Yakima is out of the way, but a scenic delight. If you find yourself driving through, this is a nice summit to activate. There are a number of other summits in this area - several of which appear to require significant rock climbing skills but this one is a straightforward hike.
Big Butte is a near drive-up (in an SUV - the higher clearance is necessary) in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that you could do in a passenger car with a bit more hiking (less than 2 miles each way on a road). From Portland, take I-84 to Cascade Locks and cross the river on the Bridge of the Gods (toll). Or take Washington 14 out from Vancouver past the Bridge of the Gods, through Stevenson and continue east on 14 to turn north towards Carson about four miles past Stevenson. After 12.3 miles on this Wind River Highway you will turn right onto NF-3080 or Hollis Creek Road (paved).
Another non-NW activation while on my summer work assignment in Cleveland. I was getting bored with the 2 and 4 pt summits on OH, which are mostly on private land, so decided to make an expedition to something with a little more elevation. W3/PT-007 had been previously activated, so I knew it could be done and is an 8 pointer, which would be my first. Finding the summit on the map was a little confusing, however. There is a summit at the coords, but it's either un-named or called "Bear Cave Lookout".
Easy 2 Mile RT (or less) leads to this fantastic overlook of the Teanaway River Valley, Mount Stuart Range, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and hundreds of other Cascade peaks.
All SOTA contacts were on 20M SSB, using my 20M inverted V dipole suspended fron a 22 ft. Carbon Fiber fishing pole. I made 12 contacts in 8 states over approximately 30 minutes.
Wampus Butte is another easily accessible summit near La Pine. Below is a map of the route we wished we had taken as it would have been much more direct (from Hwy 97, west on Burgess Rd to NF-44/E. Deschutes Rd and follow it to NF-600. It is about 1.5 miles on this road to the left turn up to the summit). This was a nice snowshoe in March but would probably be mostly almost a drive-up in summer. It was cloudy when we were up there but I think there would be a nice view on a clear day.
There are cell and radio installations on the top that provided significant QRN on 40m.
