Horse Butte southeast of Bend is easy to overlook. With a little less altitude and symmetry than prettier buttes in the area such as Pilot, Bessie or Lava, Horse Butte is principally regarded as a jumping off point for Swamp Wells, Coyote Loop and other trails. Sunday morning, my wife, Catherine, and I ignored the gloomy clouds, occasional spitting rain and blustery winds, and decided to go up Horse Butte.

Did I say blustery winds? Make that blow-you-off-the-butte winds. As we hiked up the trail at the west end of Horse Butte — the east flank of the cinder cone is a little rougher going, as part of it was excavated for cinder shielding our faces from the blasts of air, I joked about the many variations of brown nature had thoughtfully installed in the High Desert: gray-brown, tan-brown, reddish-brown, brown-brown.

And as usual after I riff on something, I later realized that I didn’t really have the complete picture when I began spouting opinions in the form of humor. “Nay,” or possibly “neigh,” Horse Butte seemed to say as it smacked me almost right away. As we neared the top, which is festooned with lava rock formations that are alone worth checking out, we began to take note of all the colorful lichen and moss: red, yellow, orange and green. I was happy to stand corrected. We even got a smattering of blue skies as they began to clear.

At the top, we made our way around the caldera, and headed back down the way we came. To prolong our experience, and happy to be out of the direct wind, we spliced onto our morning hike a short out-and-back walk on Swamp Wells Trail.

Getting there: From Knott Road, head east on Rickard Road about 1.8 miles, then south on Billadeau Road, which turns into Horse Butte Road and becomes gravel Forest Road 1815. Just past the butte, which rises to the right, you’ll spy a busy parking area. Hang a right here and you can reach the lot at the far west end of the butte, as well as the trailhead for Swamp Wells.