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Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Mount Greylock Lookout

A ground-mounted L-4 cab built 1934 or 1935, used as a fire lookout until 1939-1942, now ruined and no longer habitable; access is by hiking.

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Listed as hike-in on Idaho Fire Lookouts. The climbing guide describes a route of roughly 2.2 miles from a ridge-top parking spot to the summit and shows photos of the ruins. The cab is no longer habitable.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Ground-level cabStandard R1/L-4 ground cabin with a Forest design catwalk (NHLR); ground-mounted L-4 cab (Firelookout.com)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
852 ft (259.7 m)
Elevation
9,850 ft (3,002 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Salmon-Challis National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.41974, −114.69740
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-mount-greylock

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 3.5 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 BuiltL-4 ground cab built, per Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts. NHLR and the local history page give 1935Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1934 First staffedServed as a fire lookout from 1934 (climbing guide)Source: idahoaclimbingguide.com
  3. 1939 AbandonedAbandoned in 1939 or 1940 per NHLR; local history page says around 1939 to 1940Sources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 AbandonedAbandoned in 1942 per Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; the climbing guide gives 1942 as the end of fire lookout serviceSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idahoaclimbingguide.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 2020
  6. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, September 30, 2020Source: nhlr.org
  7. 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.

Mount Greylock is a peak just under 10,000 feet in Custer County, Idaho.1,2 The lookout on it is a ground-mounted L-4 cabin, and it sits in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.1,3 The sources do not agree on when it was built.1,3,4,5 Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts say 1934,3,4 while the register and a local history page say 1935.1,5 The register also notes a Forest design catwalk on the cab.1

A climbing guide says the cab was in use as a fire lookout between 1934 and 1942.2 The register says the cab was sometimes put to use for CCC-era training,1 and Idaho Fire Lookouts says it was occasionally used that way too.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts also says it has no written staffing record for the tower yet.4 I did not find a notable fire named in any of the pages I read.

The sources disagree on when the lookout was abandoned.1,3,4,5 The register says 1939 or 1940,1 and the local history page gives around 1939 to 1940 as well.5 Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts both say 1942.3,4 Firelookout.com adds that the cab has visibly decayed in the years since.3

The register, which listed the lookout in 2020, says it still stands more than 80 years after its last use.1 A 2024 climbing guide is less upbeat. It says the cab can no longer be lived in, and it shows photos of its ruins.2

Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site as hike-in.4 The climbing guide describes a route of roughly 2.2 miles from a ridge-top parking spot to the summit.2 None of the sources I read says what visitors may do at the site. Because the cab is no longer habitable, do not go inside the ruins, and check with the Salmon-Challis National Forest about access before you plan a trip.

  1. Mount Greylock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/mount-greylock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mount Greylock, Idaho: A Climbing Guide, https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/mount-greylock/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Mt. Greylock Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/greylock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Greylock, Mount Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/greylock-mount-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Mount Greylock, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/mount-greylock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Mount Greylock Lookout - 2020
Mount Greylock Lookout - 2020 (2020)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mt. Greylock L.O.
Mt. Greylock L.OPhoto: Jim Reid and Will Naillon, via firelookout.com · source
Mt. Greylock in 2005
Mt. Greylock in 2005 (2005)Photo: Jim Reid and Will Naillon, via firelookout.com · source
Greylock, Mount Lookout
Greylock, Mount LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · 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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Standing
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, dates, photos, 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
  4. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) 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
  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, 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

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