A 5-day Altai Hok ski trip to historic guard stations in the gorgeous Blue Mountains of southeast Washington provided solitude, wildlife, and the perfect kind of quiet year-end reflection.
Over the Memorial Day holiday I had an unplanned summit of Muckamuck Mountain, the site of a former D-6 cupola lookout. I also had a chance encounter with a fan club of sorts in the middle of nowhere!
Recently I was able to visit the Yakama Indian Reservation as part of a fire lookout work party. I met some incredible people and saw a gorgeous land that few are privileged to see.
Sometimes the most memorable adventures are the biggest disasters, aren't they? The story of kayak camping in a Mad Max-like apocalypse of wildfire smoke...
A trip report from a 3 day solo backpack of the Devil's Dome loop in the Pasayten. Devilishly steep? Absolutely, but full of heavenly ridgetop camps, North Cascades vistas, and surprising solitude.
It's not every day a visit to a fire lookout could be considered subject matter for a horror movie, but thanks to an abandoned hearse at the summit, Lookout Point earned a spot on my top 20 fire lookout adventures simply because it was so weird and creepy!
Two dozen or more of our remaining historical lookouts in Washington State are still staffed by during fire season. Here is a list of staffed lookouts as well as some etiquette tips for visiting a lookout on active duty.
The Chiliwist Butte fire lookout site near Malott is a great early season destination and the Chilowist area also has some really neat history.
Triple digit temps, thunderstorms, fires, and horseflies.... the reason I oftentimes have a Plan E when heading out for a weekend lookout bagging adventure!
A visit to the spectacular broad summit of Cooper Mountain high atop Chelan Ridge, the location of several old fire lookout structures.
An incredible 30+ mile ultralight overnight to Miner's Ridge Lookout, deep in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. This was lookout #46 for me and I enjoyed not only surprising solitude, but one of the most fantastic mountain sunrises I've ever seen!
A wonderful ridgeline traverse to McClure Mountain, not only a prominent high point in Twisp but also a former fire lookout location.