FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tuolumne County, California

Pinecrest Peak Lookout Site

Pinecrest Peak lookout, Stanislaus NF, Tuolumne County: built 1934, staffed to 1973 per the Forest Service, no longer standing. Trail to the site is about 11 miles round trip.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Stanislaus National Forest says it is no longer standing; the register lists removal as unknown. A trail guide says metal bored into the rock still marks the site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. A trail guide describes a hike on national forest land from Pinecrest to the site; no closure is mentioned in any source read.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 11.2 miles round trip from Pinecrest with about 2,500 feet of climbing. A shorter route starts on Herring Creek Road, about 4 to 5 miles round trip.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabCalifornia Region 5 Plan BC-301 ground cabinThe design: BC-301
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Also served as
Aircraft Warning Service postDuring the Second World War it was staffed to spot and report aircraft.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,134 ft (2,479 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Stanislaus National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Tuolumne County, California
Coordinates
38.22416, −119.94155 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-pinecrest-peak

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 3.3 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 BuiltRegister follows the 1986 Thornton Survey for a 1934 construction date. July 1934 newspaper items describe the station being built and then completed that month.Sources: firetower.org, californialookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 First staffedStanislaus National Forest note, as quoted by the register: staffed from 1939.Source: firetower.org
  3. No record between 1939 and 1973
  4. 1973 Last staffedStanislaus National Forest note: staffed to 1973. The trail guide repeats the 1939-1973 span but also says a small station stood near the peak until about the mid-1970s, a later date that no source read explains.Sources: firetower.org, pinecresttrails.org
  5. No record between 1973 and 2019
  6. 2019 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered December 29, 2019, nominated by Brad Eells.Source: firetower.org
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

The Pinecrest Peak lookout stood in the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County.1 The register gives its elevation as 8,134 feet, while the Forest Service note it quotes gives 8,440 feet.1

Newspapers from July 1934 reported that a new lookout station was planned for Pine Crest Peak, and a later July report said it would be finished that week.2 The register gives 1934 as the construction date, citing the 1986 Thornton Survey, and calls it a California Region 5 Plan BC-301 ground cabin.1

The Forest Service note says the lookout was first put up as a National Defense Observation Tower during World War II.1 The register adds that it may have been used by the Aircraft Warning Service during the war, though it was not constructed for that role.1 Because the 1934 reports describe a new station that year, this story follows the 1934 date.2

The Forest Service note says the lookout was staffed from 1939 to 1973.1 A trail guide repeats the 1939 to 1973 span, but also says a small fire lookout station stood near the peak "until about the mid 1970's."3 The mid-1970s date runs later than the 1973 end of staffing, and no source we read explains the difference.1,3

The Forest Service says the structure is "no longer standing," and the register lists its removal date as unknown.1 The trail guide says some metal set into the rock is still visible where the structure stood.3

The trail guide describes the site as just below the summit of Pinecrest Peak.3 The hike is 11.2 miles round trip from Pinecrest and climbs about 2,500 feet.3 The guide also mentions a shorter route from Herring Creek Road, which it puts at 4 to 5 miles round trip.3 Nothing we read says the site is closed to visitors, and no source describes its condition beyond that metal in the rock.

  1. Pinecrest Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ca/pinecrest-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pinecrest Peak, Forest Lookouts (California Lookouts), https://californialookouts.weebly.com/pinecrest-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pinecrest Peak, Pinecrest Trails, https://pinecresttrails.org/pinecrest-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Bill Johnson - Pinecrest Peak Lookout - 1935
Bill Johnson - Pinecrest Peak Lookout - 1935 (1935)Photo: Stanislaus National Forest Archive - Ola Zimmerman Collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Pinecrest Peak Lookout Site - 2011
Pinecrest Peak Lookout Site - 2011 (2011)Photo: www.peakbagging.com, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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 the location by 1.2 km (0.8 mi).

    • FFLOS: 38.22416, −119.94155
    • FFLA: 38.22458, −119.92762

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, wartime use, 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) 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, staffing, 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.