Heybrook

Please reference our original trip report on Heybrook L.O. for information on the history of the lookout, status, our initial site visit, and directions (post).

Date revisited: March 31, 2024

Trip Report.

We found ourselves in Kirkland once again for the weekend visiting my friend, Anjelica. The reason for this trip was bittersweet since we were getting together to celebrate our mutual friend’s engagement and simultaneous going away party. Her and her now fiancé are moving to California to be closer to his family (and a multitude of other reasons). I already only get to see her a handful of times a year, so the move won’t be much of a change in that aspect. But, it still offers the emotional growing pains of early adulthood as we all search for our next steps in life. Last time Garnet and I were in the area together was for Friendsgiving in November, which is when said friends announced their upcoming move. We had debated making a trip to Heybrook L.O. before heading home then, since Garnet hadn’t been yet, but the weather wasn’t ideal at the time. This time around the forecasted weather was sunny with a potential high of 57 degrees. Where we were staying in Kirkland was conveniently located for a visit to Heybrook and it only took us 50 minutes to get to the trailhead off of HWY-2. Unfortunately, a lot of people had the same idea as us and the parking lot was completely full when we got there around 11AM. There was enough of a pull out across the highway to park our cars and no signs in sight prohibiting us. It’s a busy highway though so always be cautious and careful of oncoming traffic. We noticed a few people were double parked in the actual parking lot just waiting like sharks for someone else to leave. This is on par with most of what I’ve experienced from popular hikes in WA, there’s just so many more people in this area than Oregon and it seems to be a larger international tourist destination. This isn’t to say you can’t find uncrowded hikes there, they exist, but if you want to visit somewhere you’ve seen online close to Seattle you better be prepared to join the assembly lines or go extremely early (even then I’ve been to a popular trailhead and just barely snagged the last parking spot at 7AM). Oregon is much less competitive in my opinion. We spent the first steeper portions of the hike leap frogging with some other groups as we each stopped to catch our breath. I haven’t been on a trail since January 1st and my stamina reflected that significantly. This is my sign to start conditioning now for our summer season before I hurt myself later. Once we reached the ridgeline we had a little more breathing room from the other hikers until it bottle necked again right before the lookout. There were a good amount of people on and around the lookout when we got there. We waited awhile at the base before Garnet and Anjelica decided to hike up the tower while I opted to wait at the bottom. They said there weren’t too many people on the viewing platform, but squeezing past people on the stairs was difficult. We were surprised to see that the cab was completely boarded up for the season, I had thought it was rented year round. A quick search on Recreaton.gov confirmed it’s only rented from May 1st to October 31st. I’m sure I mentioned it in my other trip report, but I would feel like Rapunzel trapped in my tower if I ever stayed in this lookout during a weekend. It was still nice to get outside and absorb some much needed Vitamin D, but Garnet and I both agreed we probably won’t be back here again. The amount of people would not be as bad if everyone respected hiking etiquette and had more spatial awareness. But unfortunately, when you get a hike this busy you have people blasting their music and no yielding of any kind. And you kind of have to do the same in return to make any progress. On the hike down, Anjelica and I were separated from Garnet due to people not being able to wait to get by us going in both directions. We yielded for them, but no one yielded for us. Once back at the trailhead, the cars had multiplied in the pull out we had parked and was now full of cars as well. There were even some people walking along the highway from a more distant pull out. It starts to reach dangerous territory when you have this much crowding and is part of the reason places end up being permitted. I know it probably seems like I complain a lot about the amount of people, but it is meant to provide a realistic expectation. I am not out seeking nature to be apart of the crowds. If you still plan on visiting, I’d recommend it during a weekday. I saw significantly less people on an early Friday afternoon in August and it was much more enjoyable to me. My Strava app only calculated this hike at 2.07 Miles RT with 812′ of elevation, but I had forgotten to start it from the trailhead.

We have been in a deep hibernation this winter and are finally defrosting ourselves for the season. Although this is a repeat for me, this was a first for Garnet and is our first visited fire lookout for 2024. We will have to wait and see where else the Forest Service roads, weather, and fires take us this year. In the meantime, I will try to finish up our trip reports from Montana before our busy season begins. Happy Trails!

Location.

Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Status.

Rental program; Currently standing

Estimated drive time from Portland, OR.

4 hours (5 hours with traffic)

Date visited.

August 4, 2023

Elevation.

1,701′

National Historic Lookout Register.

US 1094; WA 60

Trip Report.

One thing I try and do every year is make time to go on a ladies only backpacking trip with my friend, Anjelica. I always think it’s important to make time for friends and yourself outside of a relationship, sorry Garnet! We’ve invited other lady friends in the past, but most have not been interested in taking the extra step from car camping to backpacking. This trip was just the two of us. Our original plan was to spend two nights somewhere in northern Washington, but her work schedule recently changed which limited us to one night. I don’t work on Fridays so I was left with an extra day to potentially do something else in the area after my drive up. She lives in Kirkland and I noticed her place was less than an hour from Heybrook. This is a popular fire lookout that is shared all over social media and it was still on my list of Washington lookouts to check off. This felt like the perfect solution to drive up earlier to beat traffic, but still be able get to her house around the same time she’d be off work.

I set out from Portland around 10AM via I-205 north towards Washington and eventually merged with I-5 after passing Vancouver. There are more than a few ways that you can take to get to HWY-2 from I-5. Given the accessibility and popularity of this trail, you can easily get here via GPS navigation without getting lost. This goes against my normal recommendation to always use a paper map. But, I didn’t have the luxury of Garnet being my navigator, so GPS it was. The route it took me was most likely an unnecessary maze of turns through rural roads, but it could have also been avoiding the afternoon traffic. From I-5, I headed on I-405 to HWY-520 until the highway ended and turned into Avondale Road. I turned right on to Novelty Hill Road, left onto Snoqualmie Valley Road, and then right onto Woodinville-Duval Road until I reached the community of Duval. This road met up with HWY-203 in the center of Duval where I turned left to continue heading north. HWY-203 will take you all the way to Monroe where it meets up with HWY-2. I turned right to head east on HWY-2 passing through the towns of Sultan, Startup, and Gold Bar. I passed the turn off for Index and the trailhead was only a little farther past this off to the left. There wasn’t a sign from the highway to indicate the pull out was for the trailhead, but most likely there will be other cars to make it obvious. This is where the GPS actually came in handy for a change.

I pulled into the parking area just after 3PM and there were only 5 other cars besides mine. I would barely count one of those since there was a couple getting into their car to leave when I arrived. There is plenty of space for parking right off of HWY-2, but I can imagine it fills up quickly on weekends. I actually expected to see more people here on a Friday afternoon. I stopped briefly to read the trailhead board to see if there was anything of note I should be aware of. I noticed a sign asking to count the cars at the trailhead and to text it to a phone number. This was for an Outdoor Recreation & Data lab hosted by the University of Washington (link). I thought it was interesting that they were collecting data on usage of this trail and sent them a text. You will get an automated response that takes you through a few other questions and prompts about your visit to the area. I started my hike up the trail and could immediately feel the heat from the day. Since I was hiking alone, I made sure to stop and take breaks often. I didn’t make it very far up the trail before I was met by another pair of hikers coming back to the trailhead. But, after I had passed them, I had the entire hike up to the fire lookout to myself. There are a lot of steps in the first steeper portions of the trail that you can tell the WTA has put effort into for erosion control. Once you reach the ridge line the trail becomes more gradual until the final steps to the lookout. The trail is completely forested until you reach the base of the lookout, but even then most of the views are gained from the viewing platform on the tower.

I walked around the base of the fire lookout first to take a few pictures before heading up the stairs. There was a group of four on the catwalk which I assumed were the renters for the evening. I think they thought I waved at them when I raised my hand to shield my face from the sun while taking a picture. I said hello back, but you can see them waving in one of the pictures. Aside from them there was no one else on the summit. I climbed the stairs to the viewing platform that sits just below the catwalk. It’s nice that they added this for day hikers to take in the view, but as a renter I personally would find this slightly annoying. I’m sure you can hear people climbing the stairs at all hours. I did appreciate that there were a couple signs stating not to bother the renters. Not all fire lookout rentals will include this small step to offer some privacy. There was also a disappointing amount of graffiti on the platform. Unfortunately, busier places like this attract all walks of life including the disrespectful and damaging.

I was passed by another pair of hikers as I headed down the stairs. Once back on the more gradual portion of trail along the ridge, I was typing some notes on my phone from the hike and ended up slipping on some loose dirt. This caught me off balance and I slowly slid right onto my butt. I chuckled to myself and was glad no one else was around to see it. I’m normally more paranoid of falling and take extra careful steps, especially by myself. I had put too much faith in the well graded trail this time. I once again had most of the trail to myself until just before the trailhead. There wasn’t much wildlife around either except for a few ground squirrels and robins. I did stop to watch a mostly black woodpecker for a while though. I originally thought it was a female black backed woodpecker, but after doing some research it appears to be a type of sapsucker instead. The white wing bar was a defining characteristic. I passed two more groups of hikers just before reaching the trailhead, but it was an overall quiet hike for me. It felt good to complete a solo hike for a change. I used to solo hike all the time and it was how I reintroduced myself to nature. But I don’t often find myself alone anymore between my friends and partner that are down to adventure. My Strava app calculated this hike at 2.25 miles RT with 897′ of elevation gain. I decided to stop to get a small latte, as a treat, at the Index Espresso Chalet before heading on to meet my friend in Kirkland. It’s a cute road side coffee stand that offers views from the back deck and sasquatch merch.

History.

Heybrook has been used as a fire detection site since 1925 when a platform tower was built. This was later replaced by a 45′ tower with L-4 cab in 1932. The existing 67′ treated timber tower with 14’x14′ cab was built sometime between 1963 to 1965. The cab was specially designed by the Forest Product Labs per the request of USFS Region 6 engineers. It looks similar to an R-6 cab but was designed to use lighter weight material and be prefabricated off site. It was built with the intention of being packaged and bundled to be delivered by helicopter. This was the only lookout to use this cab design. It was actively staffed into the early 1970s until it was abandoned. The Forest Service site states that the lookout was rebuilt by the Everett Mountaineer Volunteers. But, Rex’s site mentions that volunteers worked on reconstructing the cab during the late 1990s. While TrailChick’s site states the outdoor retailer, Filson, partnered with the National Forest Foundation to refurbish the lookout for rentals. It’s unclear if those three things are referencing the same incident of the lookout being reconstructed or if there were multiple times it received work. Either way, it was opened to the public for overnight stays in 2017 and is still a part of the rental program today.