{"id":883,"date":"2021-06-16T19:35:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T19:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/?p=883"},"modified":"2021-06-17T02:31:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T02:31:03","slug":"tower-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2021\/06\/16\/tower-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Tower Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Type: 20′ L-4 tower
\nStatus: Staffed
\nElevation: 6,086′
\nVisited: June 12, 2021<\/p>\n

There used to be four lookouts in Oregon’s Maury Mountains, but the only one still standing is Tower Point. From Road 16 I turned onto 1750 for 2.2 miles (a bit rough, but very doable in the Outback) until reaching a cattle guard at a junction. Unfortunately there was a gate across this cattle guard and it proved very difficult to fasten back together:<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

From there I turned right onto 1760 and drove one mile to the summit (this road was also a bit rough but nothing the Outback couldn’t handle). I was surprised that this road had no gate installed on it to keep out the vandals. The tower was unstaffed when I arrived:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

The shutters were up and there was a trailer with a generator in it that had been inspected last month so my guess is that this will be staffed soon:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

The outhouse looks a little worse for wear:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

I have no idea what this toppled building used to be:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

Almost all of the chainlink fence around this spot had fallen or been removed:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

Old weather vane:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

Propane tank:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

I climbed up the steps as far as I could to get a better view, but the catwalk hatch was latched shut:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

The Cascade volcanoes were barely visible through the clouds:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

Looking down on Juniper Hills Preserve where I had hiked earlier in the day:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised by all the wildflowers blooming up here:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Paintbrush\"<\/p>\n

\"Paintbrush\"<\/p>\n

I had not yet found a campsite for the night so I decided to camp out here on the summit:<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

In the morning I got a good look at the lookout on private land on Shotgun Creek Ranch:<\/p>\n

\"Nearby<\/p>\n

Pilot Butte is very prominent to the northwest:<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

At center is Drake Butte, a former lookout site:<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

I could just make out the lookout on Gerow Butte. It’s on private property so the public can’t visit:<\/p>\n

\"Gerow<\/p>\n

One last look before driving down<\/p>\n

\"Tower<\/p>\n

More information
\nForest Lookouts<\/a>
\nRex’s Forest Fire Lookout Page<\/a><\/p>\n

A quick note: before heading home I visited nearby Arrowwood Point<\/a>, a former lookout site southeast of Tower Point. I walked the last 0.4 miles of road to the top:<\/p>\n

\"Arrowwood<\/p>\n

This is what the summit looks like now:<\/p>\n

\"Arrowwood<\/p>\n

There is a fallen tree with a ladder on it:<\/p>\n

\"Arrowwood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Type: 20′ L-4 tower Status: Staffed Elevation: 6,086′ Visited: June 12, 2021 There used to be four lookouts in Oregon’s<\/p>\n

Continue readingTower Point<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ochoco-national-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","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=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}