NOTICE: As of July 14, 2024 this area is currently closed due to the active Falls Fire and Telephone Fire.
Location.
Malheur National Forest
Status.
Abandoned; Currently standing
Estimated drive time from Portland, OR.
6-1/2 hours
Date visited.
May 30, 2021
Elevation.
6,025′
National Historic Lookout Register.
US 1705; OR 167
Trip Report.
My partner had found Craft Point through Rex’s Fire Lookout page (site), which lead to a Geocache (site) that provided some direction on how to get there. We were already camping in the area for a visit to Calamity Butte (post) and King Mountain (post) with my partner’s dad. Based on the directions, we followed NF-28 to NF-2815 heading east to NF-046. We parked in a pull out near where the road was blocked off by larger rocks. Unfortunately, I don’t recall much about the road conditions since we were in the truck. But, I’m inclined to believe it was passable with caution to most vehicles. From where we parked, the directions get a bit loosey-goosey and becomes more of a choose your own adventure. We essentially cut into the forest from the road directly towards the ridge line above until we met up with the fence line. We turned right at the fence and followed it along the ridge. A few times we had to cross over the fence to stay safely on the ridge. We came to an exposed rocky section that no longer followed the fence. Here it was unclear which side of the ridge to stay on to best access the higher point. I was ready to call it quits, but my partner wanted to continue on. His dad and I sat in the shade while he explored on ahead. He returned a short while after exclaiming that he had found it. We followed him to the left side of the ridge that skirted below some larger rocks. Eventually, we met up with an old game trail that took us directly to the summit. The last portion of the trail was steep and headed directly up the slope. We enjoyed lunch on the summit. Getting back to the car was a bit easier since we just had to retrace our steps as best as possible.
History.
Craft Point was built in 1930 as a 15′ pole platform tower. The site was never upgraded to a more substantial structure and was abandoned in the 1940s. It’s possible it was used during emergencies, but there is little to no information online about it. It has fallen into a state of disrepair but still stands.
NOTICE: As of July 14, 2024 this area is currently closed due to the active Falls Fire and Telephone Fire.
Location.
Malheur National Forest
Status.
Active; Currently standing
Estimated drive time from Portland, OR.
6-1/2 hours
Date visited.
May 30, 2021
Elevation.
6,695′
National Historic Lookout Register.
US 73; OR 10
Trip Report.
We decided to visit Calamity Butte L.O. the day after King Mountain L.O. to help break up our time in the truck. We took NF-28 to NF-2860. NF-28 might as well be considered a major highway. It is a well maintained double wide gravel road. NF-2860, on the other hand, is extremely rough, narrow, and bumpy. I would most likely have to park at the bottom of this road and road walk up it if we had drove my Civic here. Luckily we were in a truck this time and were able to make it up to the spur NF-155 that leads to the lookout. We parked on a pull out after turning on to NF-155 and walked the remainder of the road. A high clearance vehicle can make it to the lookout but we didn’t feel like maneuvering around the remaining road hazards. This is an actively staffed lookout but when we visited it was still boarded up for the season.
History.
The first lookout that was built on Calamity Butte was a D-5 ground house in 1927 and can still be found on the summit today. It has a National Historic Lookout Register sign posted on the door front. The current lookout didn’t start construction until 1996 and was completed in 2001. It’s a 50′ tower with an octagonal cab. I’m not sure what lead the forest service to start building lookout cabs as octagonal, but it seems the newer structures built during that time frame were all moved to this shape. You can also find an older garage on the summit. Fun Fact: This point use to be named Bald Butte but it was later changed to Calamity.
NOTICE: As of July 14, 2024 this area is currently closed due to the active Falls Fire and Telephone Fire.
Location.
Malheur National Forest
Status.
Abandoned; Currently standing
Estimated drive time from Portland, OR.
6 hours
Date visited.
May 29, 2021
Elevation.
6,678′
National Historic Lookout Register.
US 469; OR 66
Trip Report.
My partner, his dad, and I were dispersed camping in the area for the Memorial weekend. Our plan was to see the lookouts in this area along with a few other points of interest. We decided to go up to King Mountain L.O. for our lunch stop of the day. There is a sign off of NF-2820 that notes when you are at the road to the lookout which is NF-503. We had a truck for the weekend but NF-503 is in good condition for passenger vehicles up until the last 1/2 mile. The water run off from rain and snow is causing deep ruts and erosion on the last bit of the road. We parked the truck and walked the remaining distance.
History.
On the summit of King Mountain there is a 10′ steel tower lookout with steel cab, an old wooden garage, and communication towers. The steel fire lookout was built back in 1957 to replace the original Cupola cabin that was built in 1923. The garage looks like it’s the original from 1934 and I don’t believe it would be standing without the wire supports in place. Unfortunately, this lookout is no longer staffed and is slated to be torn down by the Forest Service. Due to the accessibility of this lookout, they had to remove part of the catwalk and board up the windows to deter vandalism. One of the windows was broken with the ply wood removed when we visited.
NOTICE: As of July 20, 2024 this area is currently closed due to the active Diamond Complex.
Location.
Umpqua National Forest
Status.
Abandoned; Currently standing
Estimated drive time from Portland, OR.
6 hours
Date visited.
May 1, 2021
Elevation.
5,392′
National Historic Lookout Register.
US 98; OR 13
Trip Report.
The first time my partner and I thought about visiting Illahee Rock Lookout was on my birthday weekend in April 2021. At the last minute, we had decided to travel to the Umpqua NF for the weekend instead of Olympic National Park. We did not do any proper research on what was in the area due to the last minute change and came unprepared without a topographic map. Illahee Rock Lookout was marked on our general road atlas and seemed to even note the Forest Service road needed to get there. It appeared to be direct and we figured we would give it a shot. We were closer to Steamboat Falls C.G., so we decided to take the back road to get there. We drove my Civic up NF-4760 that is just past the campground. The road was in great condition and we became optimistic as we caught a glimpse of the lookout sitting on the ridge. My car made it all the way to the junction with NF-300 where there was a deep patch of snow covering the road. We decided we were close enough to reach the lookout via a road hike and parked the car in a pullout. We started to trudge through the snow banks on the road, alternating between clear patches and deep snow. We came to a sharp fork in the road where neither of the roads had a visible number sign. It appeared to us that the main road continued straight and the road that sharply turned was a spur road. Later, we would come to find out it was the opposite. We continued straight on this road for miles, walking up and over a ridge that we assumed to be Ragged Butte. We even came to a junction that appeared to have parking and an old gate like you would find near a fire lookout. We continued down this road assuming we were finally at the road junction leading to the lookout trail. We even passed an extremely large rock that we assumed had to be Bartrums Rock or even Illahee Rock itself. It wasn’t until we met the road’s dead end that we realized how far off track we truly were. When I say we were hopeful that we were on the right track, I mean that we were so sure it was around the next corner that we convinced ourselves to hike 7.77 miles away from my car. Which meant we had to hike another 7.77 miles back. We didn’t make it back to the car until well past dark and got back to camp closer to midnight. To make matters worse, I had neglected to fully charge my headlamp before coming and we had to rely on my partner’s light on the way back. When I finally saw the reflection from our light on my Honda, I cried tears of joy.
After consulting a much better map upon our return to Portland, we realized we had ended up on NF-100. The ridge we thought was Ragged Butte was actually Dog Mountain. The junction with the gate was NF-120, which wasn’t marked. Otherwise, we would have known to turn around sooner. And the rock we saw was Limpy Rock, not Bartrums. After such a complete failure we were determined to redeem ourselves and make it to Illahee Rock Lookout as soon as humanly possible.
ILLAHEE ROCK LOOKOUT REDEMPTION! We decided on our next free weekend we would drive down early Saturday morning to hike to Illahee Rock Lookout and then camp at Steamboat Falls C.G. for a night before heading home. We did more research on the area, packed a better map, and decided to go up the more conventional route on the other side of NF-4760. This side of the road is just as well maintained and I had no issues driving my Civic up it. We were once again met with snow on the road and pulled my car into another pull out. This time I was happy to find we were just a 1/2 mile short of the junction with NF-100 (same number but different road from the last time we were in this area). We walked along this road until we met with NF-104, which leads to the trailhead. We were once again optimistic! That is until we rounded the corner and were met with deep snow drifts. Feeling uneasy about another trudge through more snow I convinced my partner we should go up the “other trail.” It was on the more exposed side of the mountain and in theory, would be snow free. According to the topographic map of this area there are two trails that lead up to Illahee Rock Lookout, one originating south of the lookout and one beginning north of the lookout. After backtracking, we started to search for where the other trail should be according to the map. At one point we found a game trail that we followed for a while but it only led to Bartrums Rock and wasn’t on the correct side of the road. We searched again and found an old road that might have led to where we needed to go but was too overgrown to know for sure. Accepting that this trail no longer exists, we backtracked again to NF-104. We made our way over the snow banks until we found the actual trailhead. It does exist! From there it is supposed to be a little less than a mile one way.
We started up the official Illahee Lookout trail #1539. We crossed one major snow bank that was easy to maneuver on a gradual slope. The trail seemed to be mostly snow free as we switchbacked up. It wasn’t until we went around to the northern side of the trail that we found we were wrong again. We became frustrated, knowing that we were so close to this lookout. However, these snowbanks were different than the ones we faced on the roads, they were now sloping off of a cliff covering a narrow trail. My fear of falling kicked in and I opted to turn around. My partner is more headstrong and was not going to leave without seeing this lookout. I decided to wait on the trail while he continued on over the snow. I waited there for a while hoping for the best and fearing the worst. I started to hear someone whistling down the trail and assumed it was him on his jolly way back. I was shocked to see another couple come around the bend instead of him. I was so shocked that I didn’t even bother to ask them if they saw my partner or how the trail conditions were. I could only muster up a “hello” as they passed by. I figured that if there were other people on this trail then it couldn’t be that bad around the corner and maybe I should have attempted to hike up the trail as well. Soon after my partner returned and told me how close we were. He claimed there weren’t too many snow banks to cross and it wasn’t as bad as it looked. He also told me that there were no footprints in the snow before his, so the couple we saw somehow climbed up the talus slope on the other side. They might have been crazier than us to try that from what I saw on that side of the mountain. After talking it over for a while he was able to convince me to head up the rest of the way to the lookout. It took a lot of hand holding and a bit of tears for me to make it because once I rounded the first snowbank there were many more to face and they were worse than I thought. I used kick steps to shuffle my way up and down them but my anxiety didn’t subside until I returned to the spot where I had originally waited for my partner.
History.
The whole day we had been circling this butte it had been clouded in fog. But now that we were both on the summit it had cleared out to a spectacular view. The original D-6 Cupola from 1925 is still standing and was converted to a tool shed in 1958. The L-4 tower was built in 1956 when the D-6 was considered too small to house two fire lookouts. Illahee Rock Lookout does not appear to be actively staffed anymore since there was no longer a solar panel when we visited. It might still be staffed in high fire danger but I couldn’t find any information to confirm.
Illahee Rock Lookout is a short, two mile round trip hike with roughly 600 feet of elevation gain. But in total we ended up hiking 24.74 miles trying to get to this lookout. The moral of the story is this: don’t go chasing fire lookouts in early spring!
The Roaming Civic 