Soda Mountain

Type: 10′ wooden tower with ODF cab
Status: Staffed
Elevation: 6,091 feet
Visited: July 2, 2017

Update: I visited this lookout in May 2023 and it is no longer being staffed.

During our Fourth of July weekend in southern Oregon we visited the Soda Mountain Lookout in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (it’s also surrounded by the Soda Mountain Wilderness). We parked at the Hobart Bluff Trailhead and hiked south on the PCT. You can read more about our hike here, but I will say that we were lucky to be here during wildflower season. Beautiful!

35369795250_1523bd30be_c.jpg

35369900600_9ded7edfbe_c.jpg

After a mile on the PCT a cutoff trail heads uphill joins up with the rough dirt road that accesses the summit. Then it was a hot trudge up the road to the summit. This part was just under a mile.

34947836733_3933e51743_c.jpg

The summit is rather ugly, crowded with all sorts of towers and equipment. There’s so much of it that the lookout itself is dwarfed by it all. The mountain for which the wilderness is named doesn’t feel like wilderness at all (the summit itself is not actually inside the wilderness boundary):

35369762320_f86f3476f1_c.jpg

34916531864_9316e8b0c5_c.jpg

35626010361_882e9f4d2e_c.jpg

35625918071_fd586c21b9_c.jpg

34916521984_9af0a555fd_c.jpg

Mt. McLoughlin:

34916516724_dc2c033567_c.jpg

Looking northeast:

35588036762_4f6bc2db6b_c.jpg

Pilot Rock:

35588176702_b50f9186aa_c.jpg

And of course, Mt. Shasta:

35370768140_a471594db2_c.jpg

We crawled under a deck by the radio tower for some shade while we ate a snack. Then it was a quick hike back to the car.