Driveway Butte is a fantastic former fire lookout site just west of Mazama. The route is notoriously dry and hot and will test your legs but reward you with gorgeous views of the North Cascades, Pasayten, and spectacular Goat Wall.
My experience as a first-season Fire Lookout at Goat Peak in the Methow Valley during the midst of an active fire season.
Triple digit temps, thunderstorms, fires, and horseflies.... the reason I oftentimes have a Plan E when heading out for a weekend lookout bagging adventure!
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 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.
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.
A beautiful hike to an old lookout site above Bridge Creek near Twisp. Not much history is known about this one.
A week spent with volunteers painting Lookout Mountain in Twisp, swapping stories, and remembering the beautiful history of fire lookouts.
A visit to the spectacular broad summit of Cooper Mountain high atop Chelan Ridge, the location of several old fire lookout structures.
A return visit to First Butte to check on the condition of the lookout and see the rapid deterioration of the once photogenic ground house.
The Thrapp Mountain fire lookout site may not be the most photogenic summit but lookout footings still remain and it's a worthy objective for peakbaggers and lookout enthusiasts.
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!