Lucas Homestead Wildflower Hike

Outdoor Rec

Apr 19

Written By

A spring outing just minutes from Lake Chelan

Spring hike time! Grab the sun hat, the kids, and a water bottle. It is time to hit the flower-speckled slopes of the Chelan Butte. Here is a great historical outing that begins minutes from downtown Chelan.

*Frank and Elizabeth Lucas – Circa 1920*

Ancient History

Once upon a time, a man named Frank Lucas from Belgium came to Chelan with his wife. They homesteaded on the Butte and built a brick home. They raised five children in a canyon filled with sagebrush and the occasional pine.

Eventually one of their children, Annie, would grow up, marry, and have five children of her own in Chelan. The second youngest of her brood had a funny nickname – “Toad”. He would grow up and become my grandfather.

Grandpa “Toad” spoke fondly of visiting his grandparents and their brick home. The front porch had a pair of rockers where the Lucas’ would sit. In the heat of the summer, nothing moved but the occasional fly.

I grew up hiking to the homestead. The last inhabitants had left a decade before I was born. In 1994, the Tyee Creek fire burned off the roof. Today, the walls are crumbling in, back to the earth.

A Hike For All Ages

April and May are the best times to visit the Lucas homestead. The journey is short 1.3 miles along an old road that travels from Downie Canyon up and over a ridge line to “Brickhouse” Canyon.

You will see wildflowers galore, green waving grasses in all directions, and the occasional hawk overhead. Yes, there is a slight chance of seeing a snake, although I have never encountered one. Have everyone wear sturdy shoes and watch where they put their feet.

My daughter first made the journey at age 4. She rode part of the way on dad’s shoulders. Upon reaching the homestead, kids and adults alike will enjoy picking around in the old home’s rubble.

All the bricks were formed and fired on site. My great-grandmother and her siblings mixed clay and water with hoes and their feet as kids. “This was fun at first but it turned into hard work with time.”, they wrote years later in a Lucas family history.

Some Perspective

A trip to the Lucas homestead always offers perspective on life. One can zip out to the trailhead after lunch, enjoy a quick afternoon hike, and be back well before dinner. During my great-great grandparent’s era the journey to town would have been an all-day affair.

But if modes of transportation have changed, the development of character has not. The value of hard work, persistence, and a sense of humor are as timeless as the sun. “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way”, said my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Lucas. This from a woman who left her family and a comfortable lifestyle in the East to follow her husband with four kids westward to an unknown future.

Directions and a Map

DRIVE: 6.75 miles South on 97a from Chelan to Downie Canyon Road. Turn left.
DRIVE: 1.4 miles up Downie Canyon Road. Park in shoulder on right near abandoned access road.
HIKE: 1.3 miles up an abandoned and overgrown dirt road that angles to the south. At the top of the ridge, follow the road down the next drainage. Within a half mile you will see the homestead below.

Here is a PDF with a map and photos. The hike is entirely on Washington State Fish and Wildlife land. The state purchased the homestead from our family in the 1960’s along with many other homesteads to create the current Chelan Wildlife Area on the south side of the Butte. Enjoy!

MORE BLOG POSTS LIKE THIS