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Fire lookout · Mariposa County, California

Henness Ridge Lookout

CCC-built 1934 three-story NPS Rustic lookout in Yosemite National Park, used for fire detection into the 1960s-70s, NRHP-eligible, cab now reserved for emergency use.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Register says the cab is now reserved for emergency use; a hiking route of about 0.7 miles from Yosemite West reaches the tower.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Unmarked trailhead at the end of Azalea Lane in Yosemite West; asphalt access road past water towers, then about 0.7 miles on foot to the lookout.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Three-story buildingThree-story NPS Rustic-style lookout: garage on the first floor, living quarters on the second, and a 13 x 13 ft cab with a catwalk on topThe design: National Park Service lookout
Built of
Not recorded
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,339 ft (1,932 m)
Agency
National Park Service (Yosemite National Park)
Land
Federal land
Location
Mariposa County, California
Coordinates
37.63874, −119.72159
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-henness-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 3.3 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a three-story NPS Rustic lookout.Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1960
  3. 1960 StaffedUsed by the National Park Service for fire detection in the 1960s and 1970s; sources differ on when the watch ended.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, qualla.com
  4. No record between 1960 and 1998
  5. 1998 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on June 4, 1998.Source: nhlr.org
  6. 2012 Condition assessmentThe chapter gave the park service a renovation report listing needed repairs to stairs, catwalk railing and decking, and storm shutters, with stairs and railing flagged as safety hazards.Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  7. 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.

Henness Ridge Lookout stands at 6,339 feet in Yosemite National Park, and the Civilian Conservation Corps built it in 1934.1,2 It was designed in the National Park Service's rustic style, meant to blend with its surroundings rather than stand out like the metal towers the Forest Service used.2 The first floor is a garage and the second holds living quarters, while the third is a 13-foot-square cab with a catwalk.1

The Park Service ran the lookout for fire detection through the 1960s and 1970s, a time when human spotters were still the main way to spot fires in remote country.3 One account says it was still in use into the 1980s, so the sources do not agree on when the watch ended.2,3 The register says the cab is now reserved for emergency use.1

The Park Service lists the lookout among properties determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, a finding that means it meets the criteria without being formally listed.4 It was registered on the National Historic Lookout Register on June 4, 1998.1 That register also says the Yosemite site has since been restored.1

Today the cab is reserved for emergency use, so visitors cannot count on going inside.1 Hikers can still walk toward it.2 One account describes a trailhead at the end of Azalea Lane in Yosemite West, then an asphalt road past water towers and about 0.7 miles to the tower.2

  1. Henness Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/henness-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Henness Ridge Fire Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henness_Ridge_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Henness Ridge Fire Lookout, Qualla, https://qualla.com/henness-ridge-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. National Register in Yosemite, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/nr-yose.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Henness Ridge Lookout
Henness Ridge LookoutPhoto: By Peterparr at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Henness Ridge Lookout
Photo: peter parr, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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: 1934
    • Wikidata: 1939
    • OpenStreetMap: 1939

    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, 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. 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
  4. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. 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.