FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tulare County, California

Bald Mountain Lookout (Sequoia NF)

Also known as Bald Mountain, Bald Mt

Steel cab on a 40-foot tower, built 1954-55 on the Sequoia NF; saved from removal in 2009-11; Forest Service lists summer visiting hours.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Summer visiting hours, Thursday through Monday, 9:30 am to 6 pm; free of charge; no potable water on site

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Take the Bald Mountain Lookout road (22S77) from Sherman Pass Road and follow it to the tower
Staffing
Staffed by volunteers

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerCL metal 14 by 14 foot cab with corrugated flat roof on a 40-foot Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
9,339 ft (2,847 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Tulare County, California
Coordinates
36.01970, −118.25310
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-bald-mountain-sequoia-nf

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 3.3 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 EventAn earlier lookout first shown on a 1935 Inyo NF map, at a different location, was abandoned when the Sherman Peak lookout was builtSource: fire-lookouts.org
  2. No record between 1936 and 1951
  3. 1951 EventThe site saw use againSource: fire-lookouts.org
  4. 1954 BuiltRegister build year; the Sequoia NF replaced the earlier lookoutSource: nhlr.org
  5. 1955 EventCurrent structure dated 1955 by fire-lookouts.org; Region 5 memorandum of April 6, 1955 records the purchase of a steel tower with a 14 by 14 foot steel cabSources: fire-lookouts.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1967 EventLogging roads built across the plateau; lookout became accessible to the public (fire-lookouts.org)Source: fire-lookouts.org
  7. No record between 1967 and 1999
  8. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerfire-lookouts.org gives placed on the register 4/21/1999 as No. 383; NHLR gives 2001Source: fire-lookouts.org
  9. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered June 10, 2001 per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  10. 2004 RestoredPropane lighting updated, lightning protection repair completed, new potable water system installed, and benches added along the rehabilitated trail.Source: firelookout.org
  11. 2009 Condition assessmentLightning protection system inspected and found operationally soundSource: firelookout.org
  12. 2009 EventFFLA 2009 status list of Sequoia lookouts marks Bald Mt staffed 5 days with a USFS GS employee (Kern River RD); conflicts with the volunteer 'not staffed in 2009' entriesSource: firelookout.org
  13. 2010 EventRemoval delayed for lack of funding; volunteer report lists the lookout as abandoned and not staffedSource: fire-lookouts.org
  14. 2011 EventRemoved from the threatened list after volunteer groups sought to save itSource: fire-lookouts.org
  15. 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.

Bald Mountain Lookout stands in Tulare County on the Sequoia National Forest, and the Forest Service administers it.1 An earlier lookout, first shown on a 1935 Inyo National Forest map at a different location, was abandoned in 1936 when a lookout went up at Sherman Peak.2 Use of the site resumed in 1951.2

The National Historic Lookout Register gives 1954 as the build year, when the Sequoia National Forest replaced the earlier tower.1 The fire-lookouts.org history page dates the current structure to 1955.2 A Region 5 memorandum dated April 6, 1955, quoted on another lookout site, records the purchase of a steel tower and cab to be erected on the forest.3 The sources do not agree on the year.1,2

The register describes a 14-by-14-foot metal cab with a corrugated flat roof on a 40-foot Aermotor tower.1 Mules carried the materials in, and the register says the road did not reach the mountain for another decade.1 The fire-lookouts.org page dates the logging roads across the plateau to 1967 and says the lookout became accessible to the public that year.2

In 2009 the Forest, citing an engineering assessment, judged the cab "not worth the liability or repair" and planned to remove it in spring 2010.2 A lightning-protection inspection, reported in the association's 2009 chapter reports, found the system operationally sound.4 Local volunteer groups backed restoring the lookout.2 Removal was delayed for lack of money, and by 2011 the lookout was off the threatened list.2 The volunteer reports for 2009 and 2010 list it as not staffed.2 A 2009 status list in the association's chapter reports, however, marks it as staffed five days with a Forest Service employee.4 A page last updated in 2013 says it was then staffed full time in fire season.2 The register says the lookout is still active and often passes fire traffic along for the BLM and the Inyo National Forest.1

A Forest Service page, last updated September 4, 2025, calls it a manned lookout in the Domeland Wilderness.5 Summer visiting hours run Thursday through Monday, 9:30 am to 6 pm, and entry is free.5 To reach it, take the Bald Mountain Lookout road (22S77) from Sherman Pass Road.5 The site has no potable water.5 For details, call the Kern River Ranger District at 760-376-3781, the contact number the Forest Service lists.5

  1. Bald Mountain Lookout (Sequoia NF), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/bald-mountain-lookout-sequoia-nf/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bald Mountain Fire Lookout, Fire Lookouts (fire-lookouts.org), https://www.fire-lookouts.org/cali/bald_mtn/index.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bald mountain, Forest Lookouts California (californialookouts.weebly.com), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/bald-mountain5.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter reports 2009 (PDF), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-az-2009.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Bald Mountain Lookout, U.S. Forest Service, Sequoia National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/sequoia/recreation/bald-mountain-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Bald Mountain Lookout - 2020
Bald Mountain Lookout - 2020 (2020)Photo: Robert Luher, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bald Mtn Fire Lookout
Bald Mtn Fire LookoutPhoto: fire-lookouts.org (Rich Camp) · Reuse allowed with credit · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1954
    • California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org): 1936

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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. California Fire Lookouts of the Sierra National Forest and Other Areas (fire-lookouts.org) Gave us: register numbers, staffing, dates, photos, links fire-lookouts.org · Public information per the site's disclaimer, credit requested. Facts + a short description reused under that permission -- see extra.license per record. · retrieved 4 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: links 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, 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.