Friday, May 22, 2026
We spent Memorial Day Weekend in the Ochocos and our first hike of the weekend was up to Lutsey Point.
After finding a campsite near Big Summit Prairie we drove down to Lutsey Point and parked on the side of Road 4225:
We started hiking up Road 200, the abandoned road up to Lutsey Point. We were under the impression the road would be grassy and faint, but it wasn’t:
We soon found out why. About a third of a mile up the road was an active logging operation:
The road made a sharp right turn and then we hit a road block. Because this is a closed route they left a whole bunch of cut trees laying right on the road:
We had to do a bit of bushwhacking to get around. Looking back at the blockage from the other side:
After that the old road was faint and grassy, although not hard to follow:
The Pacific Northwest had a low winter snowpack and dry spring, so the Ochocos were shockingly dry for this time of year. We didn’t think we’d see much in the way of wildflowers, but we wrong! We saw quite a few:
The road passed in and out of meadows and patches of trees:
That’s a mighty big ponderosa!
There was evidence of someone cutting a path through fallen trees at some point this spring. Maybe someone with the logging crew out exploring the road?
More wildflowers:
After 1.8 miles we reached the broad summit of Lutsey Point where there were four concrete footings from the old fire lookout. The NW footing had been pulled out at some point, probably by some bored person with a 4WD who wrapped a tow rope around it to see if they could uproot it:
The view towards Lookout Mountain:
That’s Spanish Peak in the distance on the right:
Rusty cans:
There was a lot of this lovely purple beardtongue blooming around the summit area:
And we saw lots of bitterroot that was getting ready to bloom:
The Lutsey Point Lookout was built in 1935:
The lookout was removed in 1955, 71 years ago.
Now it’s a quiet lovely out-of-the-way spot to visit. It would be cool to backpack up here. I bet the stars are amazing.
