Type: 20′ L-4 tower
Status: Staffed
Elevation: 6,400′
Visited: June 11, 2021
During a camping and hiking weekend in central Oregon I visited several fire lookouts. East Butte is a staffed lookout in the Deschutes National Forest.
From Road 18 I drove Road 1850 for for 1.5 miles and stayed right at a junction. After another 1.2 miles I turned left onto 700, then reached the junction with Road 750 after 0.9 miles. There’s a gate here so this is where I parked and started walking.
East Butte is inside the East Fork Rock OHV Trail System and there is an OHV trail that goes up East Butte, but it’s closed from June 1 to October 1:
My Gaia track came out to 1.7 miles of road hiking from gate to summit:
The tower was staffed but no one came out. Can’t say I blame them in this weather!
Rain was imminent so views were lacking:
After a fruitless search for the geocache I booked it back down the road as the rain started. It rained the whole way back to the gate, and indeed it would end up raining non-stop for the rest of the day!
More information about East Butte:
Forest Lookouts
Rex’s Forest Fire Lookout Page