January 13-15, 2019 For our annual sisters winter trek this year, Deb and I reserved Fivemile Butte Lookout in the Mt. Hood National Forest. It was our third stay there. On Sunday we headed to The Dalles, down to Dufur,…
Gold Butte in the Clouds
Greg and I stayed at Gold Butte Lookout in September 2013 and again in July 2016. We had reservations for early October 2017, but on September 6 I got an email telling me that all reservations for the remainder of…
Table Rock
Type: L-4 ground cabin Status: Staffed Elevation: 7,815 Visited: May 27, 2018 After a hike in the nearby Bullrun Rock Wilderness Greg and I visited the Table Rock lookout. It was built in 1937 and is staffed in the summer:…
Sugarloaf Mountain
Type: 32′ L4 tower Status: Staffed Elevation: 6,128′ Visited: May 29, 2018 From Bald Butte it was a beautiful drive north on Road 47, and then we turned off to head up Sugarloaf Mountain. There’s a gate about 0.6 miles…
Bald Butte
Type: 41′ timber tower Status: Abandoned Elevation: 5,920′ Visited: May 29, 2018 After lingering for a long time on Dry Mountain we headed over to Bald Butte. A short spur road heads up to the lookout from Road 41. The road…
Dry Mountain
Type: 70′ steel tower Status: Used for emergencies Elevation: 6,281′ Visited: May 29, 2018 At the start of our long Memorial Day Weekend Greg and I visited several lookouts. The first one was Dry Mountain. We took Highway 20 towards…
Green Mountain
Type: 50′ concrete observation tower Status: Staffed Elevation: 5,190′ Visited: May 2, 2018 While on a road trip with my sister in southern Oregon we visited Green Mountain in Lake County. We could see the fire lookout as we approached:…
Lookouts in the Malheur National Forest
The Malheur National Forest has released a draft Facility Master Plan and a draft Recreation Facility Master Plan for the various buildings and facilities they are responsible for. Here is what they have to say about the lookouts: There are…
The difficulty of renting fire lookouts
A few weeks ago OregonLive posted this article: Fire lookouts are hot destinations, but face an uncertain future in the Pacific Northwest. (Today it appeared on the front page of the Oregonian.) Some snippets: “Booking a night in a fire…
Hershberger Mountain Lookout Saved
What a bad summer for fires. Numerous lightning-started fires in southern Oregon have been labeled the High Cascades Complex Fires. The lookout on Hershberger Mountain has been threatened by one of those, the Pup Fire. Fortunately they wrapped it and…