What is this butterfly?
Yes, it is a skipper (family Hesperiidae) and very similar to European species in Ochlodes, and my guess is that it belongs to one of the North American species in this genus. For instance, it is very similar to Ochlodes sylvanoides (also called Woodland Skipper), which is common in the western parts of the US. However, I'm not familiar with North American butterflies, and there might be closely related similar species that I'm ignoring.

Images of Ochlodes sylvanoides from http://butterfliesofamerica.com/t/Ochlodes_sylvanoides_a.htm:



More pictures can also be seen at Bugguide.net