Type: 96′ steel Aermotor tower
Status: Staffed
Elevation: 4,970′
Visited: May 25, 2024
While spending Memorial Day Weekend in the Umatilla National Forest we visited Tamarack Mountain Road 040 was rough, but our Outback did fine. I saw a post on Facebook a few weeks later saying the road had received a fresh layer of gravel:
The ground cabin is not used by the person staffing the lookout, but is a rental available to the public. The renters weren’t around:
It’s too early for the lookout to be staffed yet:
So I climbed the stairs to the top:
It was a VERY windy day and I got weak knees, so I didn’t quite go all the way to the top. Looking down on the turnaround area, cabin, and toilet, in addition to some tents that may or may not have been part of the group renting the cabin:
View to the north with Madison Butte on the right:
View to the northeast:
View to the northeast, with Madison Butte on the left and Black Mountain on the right:
Madison Butte:
View to the southeast:
Looking west:
Zoomed-in view to the west looking at distant Mt. Jefferson and Corral Mountain:
Afterwards we drove over to the other side of the mountain which had a nice view. We had to sit in the car because of the cold fierce wind:
That’s the John Day River down below:
More information
Forest Lookouts
Rex’s Forest Fire Lookout Page
National Historic Lookout Register
Peakbagger
Panorama Photos
Geocache
History
The first lookout on Tamarack Mountain was a tree platform established in 1925.
In 1933 a 96′ steel Aermotor tower with ground cabin living quarters was built.
The cabin burned in 1966. The garage was then converted into living quarters. Even though the tower is still staffed, the cabin is a rental. As you can see from the Forest Service below there used to be more trees on the summit, which have recently been removed:
