General: As a Klickitat Cunty highpoint, this is surprisingly activated often by the PeakBaggers. I saw a lot of boot traffic. See https://peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=310 for a lot of trip reports and .gpx tracks.
Directions: From Goldendale WA, take SR97 north 14.5mi to Ski Lodge Rd. West exit. Go past the old Ski Lodge and west past Simcoe Butte/MC-051 which is on Yakima Tribal Lands. Side trip: drive up the narrow road to the summit for spectacular view of the Yakima and Simcoe valleys.
Ski Lodge Road becomes BIA292, a boundary road for the Yakima Tribal lands. At about 5 mi this road becomes a very rocky, narrow road. High clearance required but you can carefully navigate with 2wd unless it’s wet. At 46.00634, -120.81927, park and follow the Tribal Boundary OHV track south for 2 mi. Lots of downed trees but easy to get around/over. It took me an hour to drive 10 mi to the south OHV turnoff on BIA292 Rough road. But I had cell coverage (Verizon).
Navigate south of the actual summit to 45.98901, -120.82326 (still in the AZ) for a nice clear area with panoramic south views of the Simcoe Highlands and Mt Hood/Jefferson. This is not in Yakima Tribal lands(see pic). I also was blocked by deadfall at the 9 mi mark on BIA292 thereby making the hike 6 mi RT. Also, if it’s windy in Goldendale, I would expect it to be windy at the summit. And this is open range for cattle; lots of cow pies and all the associated flies. But I had cell coverage (Verizon).
