Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho
Grouse Peak Lookout
Grouse Peak lookout near Challis: a 1930s L-4 cab (one source says camp), abandoned and gone. A 2017 communication site nearby is not confirmed as the lookout's site.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned and described as gone; no source gives a removal date.
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabL-4 cab, 1930s (firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts); Forest Lookouts gives a camp (Kresek)The design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Challis National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Custer County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 44.56532, −114.09483
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-grouse-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 3.6 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
- 2017 EventForest Service decision signed 08/28/2017 acknowledging a change in ownership of a communication facility at Grouse Peak South; the notice does not mention the lookoutSource: fs.usda.gov
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Grouse Peak sits about 8 miles northeast of Challis in Custer County, Idaho, at roughly 8,464 feet, on the Challis National Forest.1,2
Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts both describe an L-4 cab from the 1930s.1,2 Forest Lookouts gives the 1930s structure as a camp and credits the detail to Kresek, so the sources do not agree on what was built.3
Both firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts describe the site as abandoned and gone.1,2 Neither gives a year for its removal.1,2
A 2017 Forest Service decision, signed 28 August, records that a communication facility at a site called Grouse Peak South, about 8 miles east-northeast of Challis, had changed hands.4 That notice does not mention the old lookout, so the sources read do not show whether the radio site occupies the same summit.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the lookout as drive-up, but its page says nothing about the road or whether visitors can reach the summit.2
- Grouse Peak Fire Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/grousepeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grouse Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/grouse-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Grouse Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/grouse-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Project Summary 51371, Grouse Peak South communication site, Salmon-Challis National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/salmon-challis/projects/51371 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) Gave us: photos, links idahofirelookouts.com · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, status/built/destroyed year parsed from each entry's short excerpt). Thumbnail photos mirrored with credit per the project's photo policy. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: agency, ownership, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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
- Project Summary 51371, Grouse Peak South communication site (Salmon-Challis National Forest, U.S. Forest Service) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Grouse Peak on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Grouse Peak Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Grouse Peak 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.