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 FS-2820 that notes when you are at the road to the lookout which is FS-503. We had a truck for the weekend but FS-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.