Trip Report.

Did you know that Yosemite National Park has two standing fire lookouts within the park boundaries? This is something they don’t advertise on their brochure maps the way that other National Parks might. It seems you have to actively seek out the information online from sources other than the NPS. It’s possible they do this to dissuade visitors from bothering working crews or disturbing the surrounding neighborhoods since both areas do not have capacity for high visitation. I commandeered our plans for end of September to satisfy my desire to check Yosemite NP off my bucket list. I still wanted to work some fire lookouts into our route for good measure and was pleasantly surprised to find there were a couple within the park. We had originally planned to visit the park back in 2020 during a 2-week road trip, but chose to reroute due to wildfire park closures and terrible air quality. It’s been on my redemption list since then. Thankfully, it seems that some National Parks have taken to withholding a few camp spots within a 2-week period instead of the usual 6-month rolling period. This has particularly come in handy for me as I’ve shuffled things around this year or if you’re more of a last minute planner. It helped that we were also traveling slightly outside the peak season when most kids are back in school and the daily timed entries were only required on weekends. I found no issues claiming my preferred camp spot at 7AM on recreation.gov 2-weeks prior to our trip.

The first day of our trip was spent in the car, well past dark, to get to our reserved spot at the Crane Flat campground. It took us significantly longer than what was estimated and it was beyond my limit for the amount of time I wanted to spend in a car for the day. That being said, the second day was planned for as little driving as possible. This meant exploring the area closest to our campground at the Tuolumne Grove Trailhead. We started with the relatively short hike down to the grove and ate our lunch at one of the trailhead picnic tables afterwards. Our other destination for the day was the Crane Flat lookout which can be reached via road or trail. There is still a short trail to the lookout if you decide to go by road, but we decided to follow the longer route via the lower trail. This conveniently starts from the same trailhead as the Tuolumne Grove. To find the start of the lookout trail we headed away from the obvious trailhead area and toward the overflow parking behind the bathrooms. We followed the parking lot to it’s end where an old dirt road bed continues and a small sign on a tree indicated it was to the lookout. This will zig-zag up to meet with the paved road that people can drive. From there, we hiked the road to the official lookout trailhead and followed the short trail around. There are a few signs along these trails but it is not present at every junction. Be aware of your surroundings and note where you are heading so you can find your way back.

The summit is occupied by a mixed working crew of fire management and SAR. They are specially trained to manage fires and make backcountry rescues via helicopter. Due to the popularity of rock climbing in the park many rescues are vertical in nature. The trail that starts from the parking area helps to direct visitors around the helipad and keep them out of the way during emergencies. Please be respectful when visiting and do not disturb the crews onsite – they are there for your safety not your entertainment. While the majority of buildings onsite are off limits, the fire lookout structure is open to the public as a standing exhibit. There is a ton of information inside that offers the history of the lookout and the crews that occupy the area. We had the lookout to ourselves and didn’t see anyone on trail the majority of the hike up. We did help a couple in their car along the paved road that was trying to locate the Crane Flat campground. They somehow ended up on the road to the lookout instead – GPS can do that if you’re not careful. We spent a decent amount of time enjoying the surrounding view trying to pick out the other lookout towers just outside the park. This was an out and back hike so we followed the same route back to the car. My Strava app calculated this at 3.05 miles RT with 452′ of elevation gain. Please note that the road is gated at times and might not be accessible to drive. If you hike from the base of the gated road it is around 3 miles RT as well with similar elevation gain according to AllTrails.

History.

Crane Flat was the first fire lookout structure built within Yosemite National Park in 1931. This predates the time of the CCC and was built by the National Parks Service. The structure is a two-story rustic NPS style lookout with 13’x13′ wooden cab and catwalk. The first floor was used as a garage with storage and is built partially of stone. It was actively staffed into the 1980s but now stands as an educational site for visitors. Interestingly enough it seems the site is still utilized by fire crews within the park. There is a secondary structure onsite next to the fire lookout that houses Helitack, fire crews, and even SARs. The park still makes an effort to manage and maintain their wildfires but does so by helicopter now. The Helitack team is utilized to transport firefighters to the park’s remote areas, sling a Bambi Bucket to directly support fire suppression missions, and perform high-altitude SAR missions from vertical surfaces.