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Fire lookout · Los Angeles County, California

Slide Mountain Lookout

1969 two-story metal fire lookout on Dome Mountain above Pyramid Lake; closed 1980, reopened 2003 by volunteers, reached only on foot today.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Reached only on foot; no source calls the tower closed or private, but none says visitors may enter the cab

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
About 10.8 miles with 2,620 ft of climbing from Frenchmans Flat Campground; the association's directions end with about 5 miles up an overgrown road
Staffing
Staffed by volunteers (as of 2026-08)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Enclosed towerTwo-story metal tower with the cab on top; cab given as 14 by 14 feet by the register and 365 square feet by the association; the 2011 blog gives 365 square feet for the whole structureThe design: CL-100
Built of
Steel
Built
1969
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,631 ft (1,412 m)
Agency
Angeles National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates
34.63290, −118.77780
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ca-slide-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 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

  1. 1969 BuiltBuilt in association with the construction of Pyramid ReservoirSources: nhlr.org, anffla.org
  2. 1970 EventDelivered to the summit by helicopter, per the 2011 blogSource: craigrcarey.net
  3. 1980 ClosedClosed after about a decade of use; the blog gives no reasonSource: craigrcarey.net
  4. No record between 1980 and 2003
  5. 2003 EventReopened by the Angeles association and rededicated (page gives 10/04/03); no repair work describedSources: anffla.org, craigrcarey.net
  6. 2003 RestoredRededicated on 4 October (the page gives no detail of the work).Source: anffla.org
  7. 2014 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered September 3, 2014 as US 1045, CA 100; nominated by Mike EdwardsSource: nhlr.org
  8. 2014 StaffedStaffed all year round, per the 2014 chapter reportSource: firelookout.org
  9. 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.

Slide Mountain Lookout sits high on the east end of Dome Mountain in Los Angeles County, with views that take in Pyramid Lake.1,2 The tower went up in 1969 alongside the building of Pyramid Reservoir.1,2 A 2011 blog post adds that the lookout was delivered to the summit by helicopter in 1970, partly because the new lake had only recently been created nearby.3

The association describes a metal structure two stories tall, with the cab at the top.2 The sources disagree about the size of that cab. The register gives it as 14 feet by 14 feet, which works out to 196 square feet, while the association gives 365 square feet.1,2 The blog gives 365 square feet for the whole structure.3 The figures do not match, and this story reports both without choosing between them.

A 2014 chapter report says the lookout was staffed all year round in 2014.4 The sources read do not name any fire the lookout spotted.

The blog says the tower served for about a decade before it closed in 1980, and it does not say why.3 In October 2003 the Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association reopened it, and the association's page gives the rededication date as 10/04/03.2,3 Neither source describes repair work, so the sources do not say what condition the tower was in before it reopened.

The register says volunteers staff the tower, and it lists the Angeles National Forest as the administering agency.1 A hiking guide updated in August 2026 calls it manned by volunteers and says it is only reached on foot.5 That guide puts the hike at about 10.8 miles with 2,620 feet of climbing, starting from Frenchmans Flat Campground.5 The association's own directions end with roughly five miles up an overgrown road.2 The sources do not say whether visitors may go up into the cab, so check with the association before you set out.

  1. Slide Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ca/slide-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Slide Mountain, Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.anffla.org/towers/slide-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Lookout! No. 10: Slide Mountain, Craig R. Carey (craigrcarey.net), https://www.craigrcarey.net/2011/12/lookout-no-10-slide-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Accomplishments: 2014, Angeles chapter report (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-angeles-2014.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Slide Mountain Lookout Hike Guide, HikingGuy.com, https://hikingguy.com/hikes/slide-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo from the Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association
Photo from the Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout AssociationPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Pyramid Lake from lookout
Pyramid Lake from lookoutPhoto: Mike Edwards, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Slide Mountain Lookout
Photo: ANFFLA, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Slide Mountain Lookout
Photo: ANFFLA, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Slide Mountain Lookout
Photo: ANFFLA, 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. Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association Gave us: design, staffing, dates, links Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association (anffla.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 association's page it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLOS records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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

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