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Lookout Tower Caches


The Navigatorz

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6fc28c5e-e95e-49bb-a6c6-cd3f55f5b5ba.jpg Red Top Lookout

 

I love going to firewatch lookout towers. I've been to several in my lifetime and each one has its own spectacular view and interesting history. I have found geocaches hidden at the following lookouts:

DEW Line at Slate Peak. Tower remains. 7440 feet elevation. Stunning views of North Cascade Peaks and Mt. Baker.

A Beautiful View on Mission Ridge near Wenatchee. The tower is gone but the pillars remain. 6880 feet elevation. View of Stewart Range, Mt. Rainier, and Wenatchee valley.

Lion Rock north of Ellensburg. Tower is gone. 6539 feet elevation. View of Rainier and Stewart Range.

Sugarloaf located north of Leavenworth, WA. Tower remains. 5814 feet elevation. View of Lake Wenatchee and Cascades.

 

And I own a geocache at:

Lookout Below at Red Top Mountain near Blewett Pass (Hiway 97). View of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Stewart. 5361 feet elevation.

 

And I am aware of geocaches at the following lookouts (they're on my to do list):

Lightnin' Bill at Goat Peak Lookout north of Mazama.. Tower remains. 7001 feet elevation.

NW Jeepn3 Raven's Roost at Raven's Roost lookout. Tower is gone. 6000 feet elevation.

 

I'm sure there are others. I'd like to locate other WA state geocaches at lookout towers or locations of former lookout towers. Can you name some you have visited by name, link or waypoint, location, elevation if known, and describe the view?

Edited by The Navigatorz
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I have one. Purgatory on Mt Pillchuck in the Granite Falls area.

There is also Granite Mountain lookout by the Thursday Night Afterburners in the Snoqualmie Pass area.

 

High Rock Lookout is also spectacular and not too tough a hike not far from Elbe on the way to Mt Rainer. I don't know if there is a cache there yet. There is Tolmie Peak lookout in Rainier Nat Park, and also Mt Freemont lookout in the park.

Edited by EraSeek
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.

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I'm sure there are others. I'd like to locate other WA state geocaches at lookout towers or locations of former lookout towers. Can you name some you have visited by name, link or waypoint, location, elevation if known, and describe the view?

I beleive there is one at Salmo Mountain Lookout. I had planned to attempt it on my recent trip to Colville, but unfortunatly didn't have the time.

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Peak-a-Boo outside of Enumclaw is just a few steps away from benchmark SX1291 ("Altitude: 1804"), which is described in 1941 as being "SET IN CONCRETE FOUNDATION FOR ONE LEG OF DESTROYED LOT" (where "LOT" means "lookout tower", as clarified in a 1942 log, "G.S. BRONZE DISK SET IN A DRILL HOLE IN THE ANCHOR BLOCK OF THE OLD LOOKOUT TOWER"

 

The next log, in 1955, says "STATION MARK UNDER STAIRWAY OF LOT", implying that a new tower was built.

 

A 1972 log implies that the new tower was torn down that year. "REFERENCE MARK 3 WAS SET AT THIS TIME, HOWEVER, THE REFERENCE MARKS COULD NOT BE MEASURED OR OBSERVED WITH THE TOWER ERECTED OVER THE STATION AND PERMISSION COULD NOT BE OBTAINED TO RETURN TO THE STATION AFTER THE TOWER WAS DISMANTLED."

Edited by travisl
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Boundary Butte - by GEO TEAM ALPHA - N 47° 32.210 W 120° 39.737

 

Keep driving on the road past the above cache and you will come to where a fire lookout used to be.

 

I know of another but I'm not telling where yet. :D I have been planning on putting a cache there for a while. I must get with it.

 

Edit: Ooooops I forgot I am using Ambrosia's computer but I am really Patudles.

Edited by Ambrosia
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I love lookout towers, too, and have hidden several geocaches in their vicinity. All of the caches I list below are my own caches hidden in the Priest Lake area. The first three are in Washington while the latter three are just across the border in Idaho.

 

South Baldy Stash - Tower remains. 5970 feet elevation. Great views into the Priest Lake basin to the east and the Pend Oreille River valley to the west (photo).

 

Hughes Ridge Cache - Tower remains. 4200 feet elevation. Nice views of Upper Priest Lake and the Selkirk Crest (photo).

 

Indian Mountain Cache - Tower remains. 5014 feet elevation. Great views of Priest Lake and the Selkirk Crest (photo).

 

Mount Roothaan Geocache - Hike begins at 6091 feet at site of old Horton Ridge Lookout, which is now gone. Cache at 7326 feet elevation. Spectacular views of Priest Lake and Chimney Rock (photo).

 

Lookout Mountain - New tower and historic original tower remain. 6727 feet elevation. Jaw-dropping views of Priest Lake and the Selkirk Crest (photo).

 

Sundance Mountain Cache - Tower remains. 6300 feet elevation. Stunning views of Priest Lake and the Selkirks (photo).

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It's true many old lookout towers have been removed or destroyed, and all that may remain is their footings, but the locations are still nice places to visit and great locations for caches. Many lookouts, however have been restored and are either still manned as firewatch towers, some are open to the public as interpretive museums, and some have been placed on the National Historic Register. It's really neat to see old towers that have been restored, such as the one at cache location GC77D9 hidden by Moun10bike:

 

Old Lookout now Restored Lookout

 

There are 2 old lookout towers, Chelan Butte Lookout and Badger Mountain Lookout that have been moved from their original location to just off Hiway 97A near Entiat, WA (along the Columbia River) for easier access by the public. The new location is called Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center. I have a cache there called Trail of Fire (GCGKNM)

Edited by The Navigatorz
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I've started a new map file for all these lookout tower caches and am going to do as many as I possibly can. The information provided by everyone has been great, including the info on the lookout caches in Northern Idaho. Looks like some awesome view caches.

 

Moun10bike I liked the panorama pictures. What software do you use? I'd like to try that. I wish I had done that when I was at DEW Line cache at Slate Peak L.O. a couple of weeks ago.

 

I may go after "On Top of Old Peoh" cache next weekend. Thanks RWW for the heads up on that one. I didn't realize that was a former L.O. tower location.

Edited by The Navigatorz
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Hey, thanks for the mention of my website! FYI, there are upwards of 656 lookout sites in Washington alone, so I hope you're up to the challenge of hiding a cache at each. :D Anyhoo, a few more for the list, that come to the top of my head:

 

Monumental Mtn. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...41-cd350c13e9d5

 

Old Dominion http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...86-4a34f7d57f42

 

Calispell Peak http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...bf-30f07ca3b434

Edited by WR7X
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not in Washington, but, Dixie Butte out in Eastern Oregon was a place special to my Grandfather, and now special to my Father and I.

 

A PLACE FOREVER

 

One cold and frosty morning in October I stood alone high on a mountain top

under a cloudless sky at sunrise and gazed in awe and wonderment at the

serene beauty that lay before me. It was quiet, so quiet I could hear my own

heart beat; my eardrums felt as though they would burst for the want of

sound. The silence was broken only by an occasional light breeze rustling

the sage brush and dry grass around me, the bulging of a bull elk far in the

canyon below me, and a ground squirrel foraging for food as he scurried from

sagebrush to sagebrush.

 

As I stood, a chill came over me. For, as I gazed to the horizon, to the

four points of the compass, all I could see was forever, but for a light

blue haze that hung over the distant mountains. The sun was rising far to

the east and it cut a silvery path in the sagebrush around me. High overhead

a single eagle soared in majestic beauty.

 

The moon was full and soon to slip behind a mountaintop to the west. It

looked cold and forbidding and so very, very far away, and I wondered if

mortal man would ever venture so far into the heavens.

 

Venus was the morning star and it hung high in the eastern sky like a

brilliant diamond on a pillow of dark blue velvet, soon to be obliterated

from my sight by the light of the rising sun.

 

The air was cold, my ears tingled. I warmed my hands in my pockets. I felt

alone and strange as though there was something in my presence that I could

not see or hear. I had never experienced a feeling of such magnitude.

As I stood there in this place of tranquil beauty and splendor and serenity,

a tear came to my eye, and another, and but for a brief and fleeting moment,

 

I felt that God reached out and touched me.

 

I love this place here on top of this mountain, and I have been back many

times. And as I think in my quiet moments of the place that God reached out

his hand and touched me, I knew that this is the place I must spend

eternity. I have asked that my ashes be strewn here among the sagebrush, and

the grass, and the rocks; and that they remain here forever.

 

Dixie Butte, Oregon 1956

Paul Sacia Wallace, 1918-1998

 

In October, 1998, we honored this wish. it is truly a beautiiful place. I am pleased that there is a Cache there now. When we were there in 98, we signed the logbook in the fire watch tower. Now I'll have to go back and sign the logbook in the cache.

 

Paul

Team Wallace

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Peak-a-Boo outside of Enumclaw is just a few steps away from benchmark SX1291 ("Altitude: 1804"), which is described in 1941 as being "SET IN CONCRETE FOUNDATION FOR ONE LEG OF DESTROYED LOT" (where "LOT" means "lookout tower", as clarified in a 1942 log, "G.S. BRONZE DISK SET IN A DRILL HOLE IN THE ANCHOR BLOCK OF THE OLD LOOKOUT TOWER"

 

The next log, in 1955, says "STATION MARK UNDER STAIRWAY OF LOT", implying that a new tower was built.

 

A 1972 log implies that the new tower was torn down that year. "REFERENCE MARK 3 WAS SET AT THIS TIME, HOWEVER, THE REFERENCE MARKS COULD NOT BE MEASURED OR OBSERVED WITH THE TOWER ERECTED OVER THE STATION AND PERMISSION COULD NOT BE OBTAINED TO RETURN TO THE STATION AFTER THE TOWER WAS DISMANTLED."

It's very cool that you chose to talk about this tower! I try to climb this peak at least 3 times a week. There are 2 caches up there (Zebo has placed his 'Turtle Mountain" one) along with the Hippy's Peak-a-boo one. (I haven't found it in it's new location)

 

Yes , there used to be a fire tower up there and apparently they used to employ college students in the summer (fire) months to watch for smoke. I've found a really bad picture of the tower that is now gone. The only thing left now is the concrete pilings it used to rest on.

1fe98438-b838-4495-8820-59ec4f146d82.jpg

 

For those not able to hike up to the remaining towers that are mentioned here, there's one on display in a museum-like set up very near my "?" Cache

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It is not in Washington, but Fire With A Lake View has a great view on the north end of Lake Tahoe. The cache is very close to the border and is in California. The cache is a multi and includes a history of the first man caused wildfire in the area. It was started by Mark Twain.

I was just about to recommend Fire With a Lake View myself! If you find yourself in the California Sierra instead of Washington....Excellent cache, breath-taking views, and wonderful interpretive trail around the lookout - highly recommended if you're in the North Lake Tahoe area. It's on my top 5 list of scenic caches.

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There's a new cache at another lookout tower location: Chumstick Mountain. We hid it last weekend and it was quite foggy.

 

And an awesome cache it is. Check out the views from the cache logs. The view is great, the road fun, and the cache well stocked. Good job Navigatorz. We really enjoyed being first finders to it.

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Hey Nav, have you ever been to the former lookout tower site at the end of the Standup Creek road? It isn't more than 10 miles Northwest of Red Top. All that is left of the tower is the phone wire and the guy cable anchors, but the view is awesome and you can do a cool ridge walk north from the tower site. I almost always see deer there too. Last time there whe parked at the switchback and walked the road up to the top. My then 6 year old was in a foul mood and sat down on a little rockslide refusing to move. He picked up some rocks to throw down the hill when he noticed they all had leaf fossils in them. I haven't been there since I started caching, but that'd be a great place for one too.

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Hey Nav, have you ever been to the former lookout tower site at the end of the Standup Creek road?

No, that's one I'm not aware of. It doesn't show up on this list: Central Washington Lookouts. I did search for Standup Creek on Topozone and it looks like you get there by driving up the Teanaway. Is that right? Looks like a good place to hide a cache with a view.

 

I'm trying to get to as many lookout locations as I can, because they have some of the best views. In the past year I have been to 8 lookouts: Mission Peak, Slate Peak, Red Top, Boundary Butte, Chumstick, Sugarloaf, Lion Rock, and Peoh Point (and each of them have a cache at the top).

 

By the way, does anyone know anything about Tiptop Lookout and how to get there? I tried getting there last summer via Camas Creek road off the Blewett Pass hiway, but every fork in the road I thought would get me there turned out to be a dead end. I saw one road with a gate across it which may have been the one. Has anyone been there? Is it open to the public?

Edited by The Navigatorz
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Lets not forget one of my favorite look-outs! It's "Park Butte Lookout Cache" in the Mt. Baker area, on the west side of the mountain at about five thousnd feet. I'm willing to bet there's a foot of snow there now. but you can save it for next summer. I've been to it four times before it had a cache, also this one is maintained by the local chapter of the Sieara club I belive.

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I found a website listing all of the Lookout Towers in Washington State by Region:

 

Rex's Forest Fire Lookout Page

 

The website gives their location by miles from a nearby city.

 

I counted them....238 Lookout towers in WA state. Now wouldn't that be a goal: Find or hide a cache at each one of them. :P

Thanks for that website, Navigatorz. I've always wondered about that lookout on Mission Peak, and now I know. When we made the cache, we noticed the concrete footings.

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Well, not in Washington, but the first lookout tower to be placed on the national historic register is the Pechuck Lookout in Oregon. It is fully restored with a unique stone cupola.

 

It has had a geocache there for over 3 years!

 

Rarely visited by cachers, but it is well maintained by volunteers. It's a 2 hour drive SE from Portland, and a hearty 3+ mile hike or bike to get there, but it's worth it!

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I did  search for Standup Creek on Topozone and it looks like you get there by driving up the Teanaway.  Is that right?  Looks like a good place to hide a cache with a view.

 

Yep. Not too far past 29 pines campground.

 

 

By the way, does anyone know anything about Tiptop Lookout and how to get there?

 

Again, yes. Although I've never been there, it is described and mapped in a Mountain bike book I have. Email me if you want to borrow it. I live in Wenatchee.

Edited by xy,xx,xy,xy,xy,xy
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Ah, xy, since you are a gung-ho cacher, hurry and get Beautiful View and Elk View, and start out early and get all the rest caches along the beehive! :blink: Better do it quick, before the snows come! :blink::blink:

I've been up there before, so If I can't get it before the snow flies, I'll do them in the spring. We went up there last October (pre Geocaching) and were close enough to a herd of elk just above the lake that we could smell them. It is truly an awesome place! I think the only other Beehive road cache I'm missing is Master's touch and only because I did a typo when entering the coords. I drove within a couple of hundred feet when I hid Mountain View...With a Mission.

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Hey Nav, have you ever been to the former lookout tower site at the end of the Standup Creek road? It isn't more than 10 miles Northwest of Red Top. All that is left of the tower is the phone wire and the guy cable anchors, but the view is awesome and you can do a cool ridge walk north from the tower site.

I think this might be the Three Brothers Lookout site.

 

I currently do not have every lookout site in the Pacific Northwest on my website (http://www.firelookout.com). For a complete list, you might get a copy of "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest" by Ray Kresek. It is the ultimate book on the subject of Pacific Northwest lookouts. He has a website for his Lookout Museum in Spokane, but right now it doesn't seem to be working. The URL is very similar to my site: http://www.firelookouts.com

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Hey Nav, have you ever been to the former lookout tower site at the end of the Standup Creek road? It isn't more than 10 miles Northwest of Red Top. All that is left of the tower is the phone wire and the guy cable anchors, but the view is awesome and you can do a cool ridge walk north from the tower site.

I think this might be the Three Brothers Lookout site.

 

I currently do not have every lookout site in the Pacific Northwest on my website (http://www.firelookout.com). For a complete list, you might get a copy of "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest" by Ray Kresek. It is the ultimate book on the subject of Pacific Northwest lookouts. He has a website for his Lookout Museum in Spokane, but right now it doesn't seem to be working. The URL is very similar to my site: http://www.firelookouts.com

The lookout I'm referring to is only 3784 feet. 3 Brothers is actually the summit of Mt. Stuart. THe place I'm referring to is Benchmark AA5972. Coords N 47° 21.431 W 120° 50.633 The directions are right on, but it is a new Benchmark set in 1993 and makes no mention of the prior lookout there.

Edited by xy,xx,xy,xy,xy,xy
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The lookout I'm referring to is only 3784 feet. 3 Brothers is actually the summit of Mt. Stuart. THe place I'm referring to is Benchmark AA5972. Coords N 47° 21.431 W 120° 50.633 The directions are right on, but it is a new Benchmark set in 1993 and makes no mention of the prior lookout there.

Okay, I have a match for you now! :mad:

 

Stafford 3784' 12 miles NNE of Cle Elum. FS. 1935: L-4 cab. S end of 3.5 mile long spur. Aban'd 1966.

 

Does anyone know of a mapping software (perhaps the one that Ed Hall uses for Buxley's Waypoint site) to produce maps with clickable points? I have been wanting to create one for the lookouts in the Pacific Northwest.

 

--Rex

http://www.firelookout.com/

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Okay, I have a match for you now! <_<

 

Stafford 3784' 12 miles NNE of Cle Elum. FS. 1935: L-4 cab. S end of 3.5 mile long spur. Aban'd 1966.

 

Does anyone know of a mapping software (perhaps the one that Ed Hall uses for Buxley's Waypoint site) to produce maps with clickable points? I have been wanting to create one for the lookouts in the Pacific Northwest.

 

--Rex

http://www.firelookout.com/

You got it! Standup Cr. Was the site of my family's hunting camp for many years. Thanks a bunch. I was wondering how long it was actually in service.

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I wanted to hide a cache at another lookout tower location, Badger Mountain, but about 1 mile from the site I came to a gate with a No Trespassing sign. It appeared the sign was meant for the adjacent farm land, but rather that continue on, I decided to turn around and go home. I wrote an email to the Chairman of the Fire Fighters Lookout Association, asking if access to the Badger Mountain lookout was open to the public and this was his reply:

 

Hi, Mike

No, unless something has changed, the access to the old Badger Mountain LO site is NOT open to the public. I can tell you this from first hand experience. Some years ago when the tower was still in its original site, I obtained permission from appropriate Wenatchee NF personnel, along with instructions on how to find it. They told me that all I had to do was to tell the landowners that I was there, and who sent me, and I'd have no problem. When I got to the gate, right next to the farmhouse of the landowners, I repeated the info I'd been given, including their names, and politely asked for permission to cross their land. Much to my shock, they very rudely refused, telling me that the USFS didn't want anyone around the tower, and neither did they (the landowners). So, rather than argue, I just left.

Dave Bula

Western Deputy Chairman, FFLA

 

I'm glad I didn't assume the road was open to the public and proceed to the lookout. Anyway, I'm just passing this along to the local geocachers for information. I'm scratching that site off my list of cache hide locations.

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