FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · San Bernardino County, California

Cajon Mountain Lookout Site

US Forest Service lookout on Cajon Pass, built 1935 on a 30 ft steel tower; cab gone by about 1997, tower reportedly down by 2004; sources disagree on the tower.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin and tower reported removed; a survey benchmark remains. One hiking page describes a tower missing its cabin; a 2012 reader comment says the towers are gone.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Hiking page says a gate is sometimes open and that this cannot be confirmed in advance. No official closure or access notice found.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Park at the Cajon Lookout road fork, then about 3 miles round trip on road and cross-country (hiking page).

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin atop a 30 foot K-Brace open steel towerThe design: BC-301
Built of
Steel
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,319 ft (1,621 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, San Bernardino National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
San Bernardino County, California
Coordinates
34.27108, −117.42407
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-cajon-mountain

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.2 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. 1934 EventJuly 1934 item: Civilian Conservation Corps crews to build a spur to the summit, where a new lookout station was to goSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 BuiltBuilt 1935 as a California Region 5 plan BC-301 cabin on a 30 ft K-brace steel towerSources: firetower.org, peakbagging.com
  3. 1945 StaffedMargaret V. Johnson named as the lookout (November 1945 San Mateo Times)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1950 EventUsed for aircraft identification under the Skywatch program (Forest Lookouts page section headed 1950's; year approximate)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1950 and 1997
  6. 1997 RemovedCab removed (Peakbagging photo caption: 1997). Register gives removal as circa 1997, and says the cabin went after 1990 and the tower after 1997Sources: firetower.org, peakbagging.com
  7. 2004 Removed30 ft tower taken down about 2004 (Peakbagging)Source: peakbagging.com
  8. No record between 2004 and 2019
  9. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 1, 2019Source: firetower.org
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Cajon Mountain was a U.S. Forest Service lookout on the east side of Cajon Pass, in the San Bernardino National Forest.1 The register says the structure was built in 1935 as a California Region 5 plan BC-301 cabin on a 30-foot K-brace steel tower, and it puts the site at 5,319 feet (1,621 m).1

In July 1934 a San Bernardino County Sun item said Civilian Conservation Corps crews would build a spur to the summit, where a new lookout station was to go.2 The register gives 1935 as the year the lookout was built, so the 1934 item describes the plan rather than the finished station.1

In November 1945 a San Mateo Times article reported that young women were replacing fire wardens in the lookout towers of the San Bernardino mountains. It named Margaret V. Johnson as the watch-keeper at this lookout.2 In the 1950s the lookout also helped with aircraft identification under the Skywatch program, according to a note on the Forest Lookouts page.2

The register says the cabin came off some time after 1990, and the tower some time after 1997.1 A Peakbagging.com page says the cab was removed in 1997 and the 30-foot tower was taken down about 2004. It adds that plans to rebuild were abandoned.3

A 2018 photo on that page shows the area where the lookout stood. The page says the only benchmark left is a survey mark placed in 1949 at a corner of the tower.3

A hiking page for the peak describes an old fire lookout tower, missing its cabin and platform.4 A reader comment on the same page, dated October 2, 2012, says the towers are gone.4 We could not settle this from the sources.

The hiking page says to park at the Cajon Lookout road fork, reached after about 6.3 miles on the route it describes. From there the walk is about 3 miles round trip, partly on road and partly cross-country. It notes that the gate is sometimes open, and that there is no way to confirm this in advance.4 We found no official access notice, so check with the San Bernardino National Forest before you go.

  1. Cajon Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/cajon-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cajon Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/cajon-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cajon Mountain (Lookout Site), Peakbagging.com, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/CajonMtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cajon Mountain, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/cajon-mountain/492982 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Cajon Mountain Lookout - Circa 1990
Cajon Mountain Lookout - Circa 1990 (1990)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Circa 1997
Circa 1997 (1997)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1939 Newspaper Article
1939 Newspaper Article (1939)Photo: San Bernardino Sun, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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. 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.