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Fire lookout · El Dorado County, California

Alder Ridge Lookout

60-foot Aermotor tower with ranger cabin and garage in Eldorado National Forest; built 1936 or 1937 (sources differ); listed as closed to public use, rental possible later.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Campflare listing says closed to public use, with no public camping or reservations; not confirmed on a Forest Service page

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Campflare listing says closed to public use and lists no public visits
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor tower with a 7 by 7 foot metal cab, a ranger cabin and a single-car garageThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
6,192 ft (1,887 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
El Dorado County, California
Coordinates
38.74400, −120.34000
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-alder-ridge

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.4 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1936 BuiltNHLR gives 1936, and a 1936 Mountain Democrat notice planned the tower; HistoriCorps gives 1937Sources: nhlr.org, historicorps.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1936 and 1990
  3. 1990 EventFacility became eligible for the National Register of Historic PlacesSource: historicorps.org
  4. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 21, 2004 as US 592, CA 63Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2004 RestoredPassport In Time project restored the tower and ground residence; a 2004 regional report says the cabin was restored for use as a recreation rentalSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  6. No record between 2004 and 2023
  7. 2023 AlteredHistoriCorps volunteers worked on restoring the ranger cabin the season before 2024Source: historicorps.org
  8. 2023 RestoredHistoriCorps volunteers worked on restoring the ranger cabin.Source: historicorps.org
  9. 2024 AlteredHistoriCorps volunteer sessions scheduled June to July 2024 to finish the cabin; completion not confirmedSource: historicorps.org
  10. 2024 RestoredHistoriCorps scheduled three volunteer sessions (June 16 to July 5) to finish the cabin's windows, interior finishes, exterior paint and floor boards.Source: historicorps.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Alder Ridge Lookout stands in the Eldorado National Forest, in El Dorado County, California, and the U.S. Forest Service administers it.1

The Register credits the Civilian Conservation Corps with building it in 1936. It is 60 feet tall, an Aermotor design, with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab.1,2 HistoriCorps gives 1937 instead, and it also describes a ranger cabin and a single-car garage on the site.2 A July 1936 Mountain Democrat notice, quoted by Forest Lookouts, announced plans for a 60-foot tower on Alder Hill, along with a house and a garage, which fits the earlier date.3

Most sources say 60 feet, but a September 2000 Mountain Democrat report, quoted by Forest Lookouts, gives the height as 80 feet.3 The Register lists the elevation as 6,192 feet, while HistoriCorps gives 6,225 feet.1,2

The Register added the lookout on September 21, 2004, the same year a Passport In Time project completed work on the tower and the ground residence.1 A 2004 Central California lookout report says the cabin was restored to serve as a rental for recreational visitors.4 HistoriCorps says volunteers worked on the cabin the season before that, and its 2024 project was set to finish the job.2

A Campflare listing says the site is shut to visitors and offers no public camping or bookings.5 It adds that the Eldorado National Forest is handling deferred maintenance and restoration with Great American Outdoors Act money, and that a recreation rental may be possible later, though no timeline has been announced.5 The 2004 report describes the cabin as set up for rental, while the current listing treats a rental as a future possibility, so the sources do not agree on whether one ever opened.4,5

The sources read do not say who staffed the lookout or what fires it watched. Anyone planning a visit should check with the Eldorado National Forest first.

  1. Alder Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/alder-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Alder Ridge Lookout Cabin, CA 2024, HistoriCorps (historicorps.org), https://historicorps.org/alder-ridge-lookout-cabin-ca-2024/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Alder Ridge, Forest Lookouts (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/alder-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Central California lookout report, 2004 (PDF), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-cc-2004.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Alder Ridge Lookout Campground, Campflare (campflare.com), https://campflare.com/campground/alder-ridge-lookout-640 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Alder Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. HistoriCorps Gave us: design, dates, links HistoriCorps (historicorps.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, the kind of work planned). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the HistoriCorps page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.