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Fire lookout · San Diego County, California

Hot Springs Mountain Lookout

Also known as Hot Springs

Cleveland NF tower on Hot Springs Mountain, San Diego County's highest point; current 1942 cab partly fallen, unstaffed, on Los Coyotes land with climbing prohibited.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. on Los Coyotes Reservation land; the tribe allows hiking from its campgrounds on a purchased or prepaid permit; the approach road has a chain gate opened with a key from the visitors' booth; the reservation recently reopened to public visitation

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
high-clearance vehicle needed on the roughly 5-mile approach road (2017 visit report); the tribe says the tower is not the summit and climbing is prohibited
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerRegion 5 design C-3 wood 14 x 14 ft cab on a new 20 ft tower (1942); earlier 4AR 14 x 14 cab on a 23 ft timber tower (1928)The designs: D-5 (4-AR), C-3
Built of
Wood
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,535 ft (1,992 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
San Diego County, California
Coordinates
33.31410, −116.58245
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-hot-springs-mountain

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 2.8 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. 1912 Builtfirst lookout, a 7 x 7 ft ground house constructed by the Cleveland National ForestSources: nhlr.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  2. 1913 EventJune 1913 newspaper describes a one-room frame building on the summit boulder, with a map table used to plot smoke bearingsSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1913 and 1928
  4. 1928 Replaced by a new structuresecond structure, a 4AR 14 x 14 ft cab on a 23 ft timber tower, replaced the originalSources: nhlr.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  5. 1937 AlteredJune 1937: a crew of carpenters and material were packed in to the lookout, which a column says cannot be reached by automobile; the excerpt does not name the workSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 FireAugust 1939: lookout William Charlton fled when flames threatened the towerSource: californialookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1942 Builtpresent cab and tower built: Register Built field 1942; upgraded with a Region 5 design C-3 cab and new 20 ft towerSources: nhlr.org, ffla-sandiego.org
  8. 1942 Replaced by a new structureThe present cab and tower were built; its roof has since collapsed and the structure is badly weathered.Source: ffla-sandiego.org
  9. No record between 1942 and 2008
  10. 2008 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate Registered December 16, 2008Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2017 Condition assessmentJune 21, 2017 NHLR visit report: advanced state of decay, pieces of the cab fallen on the west side, stairs dangerous, unstaffedSource: nhlr.org
  12. 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.

Hot Springs Mountain Lookout stands on the highest point in San Diego County, on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation near Warner Springs.1,2,3 The U.S. Forest Service administers the lookout, but the peak is not public land, and the Los Coyotes Tribe controls who goes up.1,3

The Cleveland National Forest built a small ground house on the peak in 1912.1,2 In 1928 a 14-by-14-foot cab on a 23-foot timber tower replaced it.1,2 The present cab and tower date from 1942, a Region 5 C-3 design on a new 20-foot tower.1,2

Early use was hard going. A 1937 report described carpenters packed in to the lookout, which it called the only one on the Cleveland Forest that could not be reached by car.4 In 1939 the lookout, William Charlton, had to flee when flames threatened the tower, and he fled down the trail to the Warner Springs hotel.4

The Register added the lookout on December 16, 2008.1 Its June 2017 visit report found the structure in an "Advanced state of decay," with pieces of the cab fallen to the ground on the west side and stairs it calls dangerous.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's San Diego chapter says the glass and furnishings are gone and the roof has collapsed.2 A lookout directory lists the status as "Collapsing."5 The tower still stands, but pieces of the cab have fallen to the ground, the roof has collapsed, and FFLA says its latest photos show the structure about to fall.1,2

No one staffs it. The 2017 report marks the lookout unstaffed and lists no volunteer openings.1

The Register says the reservation has recently opened again to the public.1 The tribe lets visitors hike from its campgrounds to the top, and permits can be bought at its ranger station or prepaid online.3 The tribe also says the tower "is not the summit and climbing is prohibited."3 The 2017 report says a high-clearance vehicle is required on the 5-mile approach road, where a chain across the road is opened with a key from the visitors' booth.1 Given the decay and the tribe's rule, the safe way to see the tower is from the ground.

  1. Hot Springs Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/hot-springs-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Hot Springs Mountain - Fire Lookout, Forest Fire Lookout Association San Diego-Riverside Chapter, https://www.ffla-sandiego.org/fire-lookout/southern-california-towers/hot-springs-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hiking, Los Coyotes Tribe, https://www.loscoyotestribe.org/hiking (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hot Springs Mountain, Forest Lookouts California (californialookouts.weebly.com), quoting the California Ranger and The San Bernardino County Sun, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/hot-springs-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Southern California lookouts, Forest Lookout Host, https://www.firelookouthost.org/southern-california (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hot Springs Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1912 photo
1912 photo (1912)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1932 photo
1932 photo (1932)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1944 photo
1944 photo (1944)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1960s photo
1960s photoPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hot Springs Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hot Springs Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hot Springs Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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: 1942
    • FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter: 1912

    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. FFLA San Diego-Riverside Chapter Gave us: design, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, San Diego-Riverside Chapter (ffla-sandiego.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, designs, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the chapter's page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages Gave us: register numbers, links FFLA chapters and Friends groups (each link names the group) · Links to the groups' own pages; facts only from the California-South chapter's tower table (register page, operator, condition). No text or photos reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. 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.