{"id":599,"date":"2018-05-29T20:55:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T20:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/?p=599"},"modified":"2025-07-30T17:05:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:05:33","slug":"dry-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2018\/05\/29\/dry-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Dry Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Type: 70&#8242; steel tower<br \/>\nStatus: Used for emergencies<br \/>\nElevation: 6,281&#8242;<br \/>\nVisited: May 25, 2018<\/p>\n<p>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 Burns, then turned north into the forest at the little &#8220;town&#8221; of Riley. Then we drove 30 miles up to Dry Mountain.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1744\/42385482892_3ca2060b9a_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"531\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/901\/42435798451_b174fb821b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1742\/42385573192_079c724bc9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1733\/40628161700_9704c170be_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1743\/27565722037_e7082ebe62_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The tower is 70&#8242; feet tall. Both it and the ground cabin were built in 1932. It&#8217;s located in a section of the Ochoco National Forest that is actually detached from the rest of the ONF. Because it&#8217;s closer to the Malheur National Forest, it falls under that forest&#8217;s administration. Here is what the site looked like back in the day:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7486\/15943114049_2ca19b2f11_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"655\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were wildflowers blooming up there, which was great:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1740\/41712499884_17a9693edb_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/882\/42435791661_2546e7f9ce_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1743\/40628174520_a89938fbc2_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw this strange circle of white rocks. Maybe this was a rudimentary helipad at one point? Right now there are some trees pretty close to the circle so I&#8217;m not sure a helicopter could safely land:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1727\/42435795181_180ee5d941_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I climbed up a pile of big boulders to get some views. Looking south:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/893\/42435789201_c4bfb02f4d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Southwest:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1754\/41712482944_c32696bb7f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>East:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1752\/27565619397_aecf4b890e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking west back towards the lookout:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1747\/42435787471_1edece488b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I could hear bald eagles and then I saw them. I bet they have a nest somewhere up here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1725\/42385579042_3f10a2d4a3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Greg was totally absorbed in the wildflowers:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/901\/40628165800_971b1c6d73_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was surprised to find the outhouse still intact:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/885\/41712563904_4df8a1db16_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The stairs were not blocked off so I went up a few flights:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1742\/41533684855_5b9d4467e0_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1730\/42435969231_b37d876566_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking west:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1759\/40628273620_1274164f36_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking north:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1740\/27565793247_af65bde241_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking east to Bald Butte, our next destination:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/874\/42435963521_93969eee88_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I only went about halfway up, not sure how stable the stairs were:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1730\/27565790807_d370a65cdc_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The back window of the cabin was broken and I could see inside. The place was in pretty bad shape:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1731\/41712627544_8d00a561fe_c.jpg\" alt=\"Dry Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cool spot up here! I was pleasantly surprised to not find rampant vandalism and trash here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Type: 70&#8242; steel tower Status: Used for emergencies Elevation: 6,281&#8242; Visited: May 25, 2018 At the start of our long<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2018\/05\/29\/dry-mountain\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dry Mountain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malheur-national-forest","category-ochoco-national-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}