Trip Report.

I had planned our trip to have a day to explore most sections of the national park to see as much as possible in our limited time. Our third day was designated to exploring the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. If we had time we would make a side trip to Smith Peak lookout on our drive back to camp. This area of the park is located in the north western corner. It required leaving and re-entering the park, so it set us up well to visiting a fire lookout just outside the boundaries. The access to the Hetch Hetchy area is off a steep and narrow road with limited trail options. It seemed like most trails were utilized for access to longer backpacking routes. I settled on sticking to the classic hike along the reservoir to Tueeulala and Wapama falls. The biggest downside to visiting Yosemite this late in the season was most of these waterfalls were dry. The trail follows an old railroad cut that is relatively flat, but offers little reprieve from the sun. Despite Strava only calculating this hike at 4.80 miles with 585′ of elevation gain the heat made it challenging. Our energy was tapped by the time we made it back to the car.

I wanted to head straight back to camp afterwards, but we decided to continue to the Groveland Ranger station to buy a map of the area. Garnet was interested in looking at the routes to other fire lookouts, but they were completely out of the map we wanted. After some debate, we decided to continue on to Smith Peak. The access road was located just behind the ranger station and we were already there. We followed the paved road to the Pines Campground and turned into it. The road turned to dirt and continues beyond the campground. We debated parking here and walking the road since it was close enough, but ended up continuing on for the same reason. If we found the road inaccessible we could always turn around. There were some minor hazards to avoid if you are driving a low clearance vehicle but it is passable. After driving for a mile and a half we reached a 5-way intersection. We parked in a pull out here since we figured the remaining distance to the summit was behind a gate. It was not immediately clear which road led to the summit from here. We took a guess and headed left based on which road looked the most used and angled towards the summit. It was confirmed we made the right selection when we reached the gate farther down the road. From where we parked to the summit was less than half of a mile. Strava calculated this at 0.95 RT with 174′ of elevation gain. If we had decided to park at the campground, the hike would have been closer to 4 miles RT with 680′ of gain.

Our biggest surprise after we reached the summit was meeting the lookout attendant onsite. We figured even if it was still staffed the person would have already been done for the season or have had left for the evening. He invited us up to chat, but not all the way on the catwalk. The view from the ground was about the same as it was from the stairs. Unfortunately neither of us can recall his name, but we chatted with him for awhile about lookouts and the surrounding area before heading back to camp for the night.

History.

In 1931, Smith Peak was selected as an administrative site to build a lookout tower. A wooden 2-story tower was built shortly after it’s selection. Old archive pictures show this structure was reminiscent of a national park style cab with slight variations. It is mentioned that the site has been utilized for fire detection as early as 1910 given it’s proximity to the ranger station. The wooden structure was replaced in 1952 by a metal lookout tower and garage. This burned down in 1987 during the Stanislaus Complex fire and was replaced by the existing structure in 1988. This site continues to be actively staffed every season and is one of only two remaining staffed in the Groveland Ranger District.