Fire lookout · Monterey County, California
Junipero Serra (Santa Lucia) Lookout Site
Also known as Junipero Serra (Santa Lucia PK), Junipero Serra
Monterey County, CA lookout on Santa Lucia (Junipero Serra) Peak, built 1935; cabin removed, tower remains; Forest Service listed the trail to it closed in Aug 2026.
- Standing
- Closed
- Verified
Closed
The site is closed to visitors. Reached on foot through the Ventana Wilderness. Forest Service lists the Santa Lucia Peak Trail (6E01) closed as of Aug 2026 after the Timber and Plaskett fires.
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?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- 2.3-mile trail forks from the Santa Lucia Trail (5E03). No motorized use in wilderness; no wilderness permits issued. Closed per Forest Service page; do not attempt the tower.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Cab on a tower30-foot K-brace open steel tower with a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin; wood cab per Forest LookoutsThe design: BC-301
- Built of
- Steel
- Built
- 1935
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- 5,842 ft (1,781 m)
- Agency
- US Forest Service, Los Padres National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Monterey County, California
- Coordinates
- 36.14600, −121.42084
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ca-junipero-serra-santa-lucia
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 3.0 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
- 1935 BuiltRegister gives 1935 as the build year; Forest Lookouts says the CCC constructed itSources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1935 and 1979
- 1979 AbandonedOnly a hiking blog gives this date; not in the Register or Forest Lookouts, unconfirmedSource: modernhiker.com
- No record between 1979 and 2019
- 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register on December 20, 2019Source: firetower.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The lookout stands on Santa Lucia Peak in Monterey County, a peak that the Forest Service trail page calls Junipero Serra Peak.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register dates the tower to 1935 and says a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 cabin sat on an open steel tower about 30 feet tall.1 The Forest Lookouts site credits the Civilian Conservation Corps with building the 30-foot steel tower and its wooden cab, and it cites a book on Los Padres lookouts by Irma Oksen Reaves.3
We found no source that names anyone who staffed the lookout or any fire it spotted.1,3
The Register says the tower is still there, while the date the cabin came down is unknown.1 A hiking blog calls the site a ruin of a lookout that was abandoned in 1979.4 The Register does not give that 1979 date, and we could not confirm it from another source.1,4
The Register added the site to its list on December 20, 2019, and gives the elevation as 5,842 feet (1,781 meters).1
Today, the Forest Service page for the Santa Lucia Peak Trail describes a 2.3-mile route through the Ventana Wilderness to the summit, and it lists the trail as closed in August 2026 because of the Timber and Plaskett fires.2 The wilderness bans motorized use, and the forest does not issue wilderness permits.2 Please do not climb or visit the tower while the route is closed, and check the Forest Service notice before planning any trip.2
- Junipero Serra (Santa Lucia) Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/junipero-serra-santa-lucia-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Santa Lucia Peak Trail 6E01, USDA Forest Service, Los Padres National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/lospadres/recreation/trails/santa-lucia-peak-trail-6e01 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Junipero Serra - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/junipero-serra.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Junipero Serra Peak, Modern Hiker, https://modernhiker.com/hike/hiking-junipero-serra-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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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 whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
- FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages: Ruins
Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: height, 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
- FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages (opens another site) 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
- 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
- FFLOS register entry US 1864 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Santa Lucia Peak Trail 6E01 (USDA Forest Service, Los Padres National Forest) (opens another site)
- Junipero Serra Peak (Modern Hiker) (opens another site)
- FFLA California lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA California-South chapter: Southern California lookouts (opens another site)
- Junipero Serra (Santa Lucia PK) on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.