You could do as a backpack if you haul your water up in summer; we did it in the snow. It was quite strenuous as we had to add two miles roundtrip back to the car as snow berm/winter gate prevented driving to the campground which would be the normal starting point. We went back in June and camped just below the butte and went to lookout site twice. We saw only two hikers all weekend, a couple of motorcycles, three people on horseback, and three people on bicycles. The mileage is less if you go straight to the lookout without having to do the extra mileage on the road when it is snowed in. We could not find water at the locations shown on Caltopo and ended up having to travel an overgrown trail that was hard to find in places and had lots of blowdown - Jungle Creek - but we found just enough water and a lot of mosquitoes. It was worth it to haul the water up as the views are phenomenal, but I doubt we will do that twice. Go when enough snow remains for water as that trip to Jungle Creek was quite the adventure. If you don't know how to routefind, don't go that way!!