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Fire lookout · Trinity County, California

Pickett Peak Lookout

Pickett Peak Lookout, Trinity County: lookout site since 1922, tower collapsed 1933, current cab on 1965 tower, reopened with paid staff 2013; not in regular use per 2023 sources.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A 2023 account reached the lookout on foot from the Bailey Canyon Campground trailhead. Road maps disagree: an older map shows pavement to the Pickett Peak Campground, newer maps show high clearance. The sources read give no official access rule; do not climb the tower.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerNational Plan CL-100 13x13 cabin on a 55-foot K-Brace steel tower, built 1965 per NHLRThe design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Built
1965
Height
55 ft (16.8 m)
Elevation
5,183 ft (1,580 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service: Shasta-Trinity National Forest per NHLR; Peakbagging places it on the Six Rivers and Trinity boundary
Land
Federal land
Location
Trinity County, California
Coordinates
40.34574, −123.36325
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-pickett-peak

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. 1922 FireLookout noticed a fire that seemed to be spreading; a fireman sent to investigate found it nearing the Forest boundary and went to work on it (district news item dated October 13, 1922; the fire was in September)Source: californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1922 EventNHLR says the site has served as a lookout since at least 1922Source: nhlr.org
  3. 1933 DestroyedA 60-foot steel tower collapsed in a winter snow storm; a newspaper said it would probably be an almost total lossSources: nhlr.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1965
  5. 1965 BuiltCurrent structure: National Plan CL-100 13x13 cabin on a 55-foot K-Brace steel tower, built 1965 per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  6. 1972 EventTower footing with a date of 1972; Peakbagging says the tower was probably built then, which conflicts with the NHLR 1965 dateSources: peakbagging.com, nhlr.org
  7. No record between 1972 and 2013
  8. 2013 StaffedReopened with paid U.S. Forest Service staffing after 20 years shuttered; lightning fires spotted and reported from it in AugustSource: firelookout.org
  9. 2019 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 30, 2019 as NHLR US 1369, CA 192Source: nhlr.org
  10. 2023 EventHiking blog says the lookout is no longer in use but still solid enough to visit; not an official statusSource: valhikes.blogspot.com
  11. 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.

Pickett Peak Lookout stands in Trinity County, California, at about 5,180 feet, according to the Register.1 The sources disagree on the forest. The Register puts it in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, while Peakbagging places it on the boundary of the Six Rivers and Trinity forests and gives its elevation as 5,778 feet.1,2

The Register dates use of the peak as a lookout back to at least 1922.1 A district news item dated October 13, 1922, reported that the lookout noticed a fire that seemed to be spreading.3 A fireman sent to investigate found it nearing the Forest boundary and went to work on it.3 A winter storm collapsed a 60-foot steel tower here in 1933, and a newspaper of the time said it would probably be an almost total loss.1,3

The Register says the present cab is a 13-by-13 National Plan CL-100 on a 55-foot K-brace steel tower that went up in 1965.1 Peakbagging reports a footing dated 1972 and suggests the tower was built then, so the two dates conflict.2,1

The lookout was reopened with paid Forest Service staffing in 2013, after 20 years closed.4 That August, lightning fires were spotted and reported from it.4 The Register recorded it on October 30, 2019, as US 1369, CA 192.1

An undated Peakbagging page says the lookout is in good condition but not staffed regularly.2 A 2023 hiking blog says it is no longer in use but still solid enough to visit.5 The blog reached it on foot from the Bailey Canyon Campground trailhead and found that road maps disagree: an older map shows pavement to the campground, while newer ones show high clearance.5 The Forest Service describes the upper trail as historic, built around the turn of the century to make the ridge top easier to reach for a fire lookout.6

No official access rule for the cab turned up in the sources read. Anyone planning a visit should check with the Forest Service first and should not climb the tower.

  1. Pickett Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/pickett-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Pickett Peak Lookout, California, Peakbagging, http://www.peakbagging.com/CALookoutPhotos/PickettPeak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Pickett Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pickett-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association California-Northern chapter report, 2013, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nca-2013.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Pickett Peak Lookout, valhikes (blog), https://valhikes.blogspot.com/2023/06/pickett-peak-lookout.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Pickett Peak Trail, Six Rivers National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/sixrivers/recreation/trails/pickett-peak-trail (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Pickett Peak Lookout
Pickett Peak LookoutPhoto: www.peakbagging.com, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2009
2009 (2009)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout anchor pier with a '1972' impression marked
Lookout anchor pier with a '1972' impression marked (1972)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via 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.

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. 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.