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Fire lookout · Moffatt County, Colorado

Zenobia Peak Lookout

Also known as Zenobia

1964 NPS-built R-6 tower on Zenobia Peak in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado; NHLR-registered 2010; no current access or staffing sources found.

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
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerNPS model 15'x15' R-6 flattop cab on a 30' timber towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1964
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
9,006 ft (2,745 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Moffatt County, Colorado
Coordinates
40.60695, −108.87012
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-co-zenobia-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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1944 StaffedVernal Express item (June 29, 1944): NPS employee working with the grazing service, lookout at Zenobia PeakSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1944 and 1961
  3. 1961 StaffedVernal Express item (June 15, 1961): station to be manned for the first time since the 1940s by Delbert Ducey of Greystone, ColoradoSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1964 BuiltNHLR gives 1964; Vernal Express notice of December 17, 1964 says monument maintenance personnel constructed it, finished late in the fallSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1964 and 2010
  6. 2010 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 6, 2010 as US 889, CO 16; nominated by Susan EpsteinSource: nhlr.org
  7. 2019 Condition assessmentNHLR: as of 2019 the condition of the tower, cab exterior and interior is good-excellentSource: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Zenobia Peak sits inside Dinosaur National Monument in Moffat County, Colorado.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register gives the site's elevation as 9,006 feet (2,745 metres).1 The earliest staffing notice in the sources dates from 1944, when a Park Service employee working with the grazing service was posted to the peak as a lookout.2

The tower was built in 1964.1 The Register says the National Park Service constructed it on the monument that year.1 A December 1964 Vernal Express notice, reprinted by the Forest Lookouts site, says monument maintenance crews built it, finished it late in the fall and had it ready for full-time use when the next fire season began.2

The Register describes an NPS model cab, 15 feet square with a flat top, of the R-6 design, on a 30-foot timber tower.1 The Forest Lookouts page gives a treated timber tower of 19 feet 6 inches, with a cab of 15 feet 9 inches square. It does not explain the difference, so the height in our record should be treated as uncertain.2

Staffing came and went. A 1961 notice said the station would be manned again for the first time since the 1940s, with someone from Greystone, Colorado, assigned to the duty.2 The sources do not say who watched the peak after that or for how long. They name no particular fires the lookout spotted.

The Register lists the tower as standing and records a 2019 assessment that the tower and cab, inside and out, were in good to excellent shape.1 It was registered on August 6, 2010 as US 889, CO 16, with the National Park Service as administrator and the monument as cooperator.1 The listing says nothing about rental or public climbing, and the sources do not say whether the tower has ever been moved, rebuilt or burned. Anyone planning a visit should ask the monument about access before going.

  1. Zenobia Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/co/zenobia-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Zenobia - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/zenobia.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Zenobia Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: height, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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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