If you can ever get a glimpse of Rock Creek Butte from the I-84 freeway, framed in the center of the Elkhorns, you'll be impressed by her stately demeanor. The peak is the highest point in the Elkhorn Mountains of eastern Oregon. At 9,106' it is the 26th highest mountain in Oregon. More importantly, Rock Creek Butte is a gnarly mountain with wicked basins on the northeastern sides. For that reason, the main feature route here is the safer and less technical southern approach. While the tracks featured here are the winter route, your approach mainly follows the summer trail to Twin Lakes, so it would be a good access route during summer too. On this climb, you will definitely see mountain goats. I guarantee that.
The tour route here should be done under highly stable snow conditions, because as you get closer to Twin Lakes you enter the bottom of a basin with avalanche potential above you. Use caution on route selection at this point. Severe wind loading is common on the ridgetops, usually from a westerly or southwesterly wind.
Access
Just past Phillips Lake you will turn off on the road that goes up to the trailhead, Deer Creek Road. While the map here shows the snowmobile route starting there, you will usually drive a ways down the road until you unload the sleds. In late spring you can drive all the way to the trailhead, so no snowmobiles are needed.