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Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Pinyon Peak Lookout

A 1930 ground cab on Pinyon Peak in the Challis National Forest, drive-up and listed as staffed through 2023; sources disagree on the cab type.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Drive-up per Idaho Fire Lookouts, on Forest Service land. No closure notice, visitor information or road report was found in the sources read.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
A 1935 newspaper item quoted by the Forest Lookouts site describes a road still being completed toward the station, with the last stretch cut into rock. No current road report was found; check with the Forest Service before driving up.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2023)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabGround cab with hip roof; register says L-4 groundhouse, other sites say R-4 frame cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,855 ft (3,004 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.56957, −114.91690
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-pinyon-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.

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

  1. 1930 BuiltBuilt 1930 per the register and the other lookout sites. The Forest Lookouts site calls it a Region 5 model 4A ground house.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1935 EventRoad toward the station was being completed; about half a mile was still to be built, per a 1935 newspaper item quoted by the Forest Lookouts siteSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1985
  4. 1985 First staffedFirst named lookout on the Idaho Fire Lookouts staff listSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1985 and 2004
  6. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered February 12, 2004Source: nhlr.org
  7. 2006 EventNotice asked volunteers to help paint and clean up the historic lookoutSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 2012 FireLookout evacuated as the Halstead fire advanced; dated August 4, 2012 on the Forest Lookouts siteSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 2023 StaffedMost recent named lookout on the Idaho Fire Lookouts staff listSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 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.

Pinyon Peak Lookout is a ground cabin on a high summit in the Challis National Forest, about 34 miles west-northwest of Challis.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register dates it to 1930 and classes it as an L-4 groundhouse with a hip roof and a catwalk.1 Two other sites call it an R-4 cab, and a third calls it a Region 5 model 4A ground house, so the exact cab type is still in question.2,3,4

In 1935 a newspaper item, quoted by the Forest Lookouts site, reported that a new road was being completed toward the station, with only half a mile still to build.4 The same site quotes a 2006 notice seeking volunteers to paint and tidy up the historic lookout.4 In August 2012 the lookout was evacuated as the Halstead fire advanced.4

The Idaho Fire Lookouts site lists the tower as staffed, with named lookouts running from 1985 through 2023.3 The Fire Lookout site says summer staffing is possible.2

The register says the lookout has stayed in active service since it was built, and it was added to the register on February 12, 2004.1 The Forest Lookout Association's Idaho list still marks it as standing.5

The Idaho Fire Lookouts site calls it drive-up.3 I found no closure notice for it, but I also found no current visitor information or road report. The 1935 account describes the last four to six miles of the road as a shelf cut into the rock with dynamite, so check conditions with the Forest Service before you drive up.4

  1. Pinyon Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/pinyon-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Pinyon Peak Fire Lookout Tower, Fire Lookout (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/id/pinyonpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Pinyon Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/pinyon-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Pinyon Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/pinyon-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts (by Region), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/id-rg/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pinyon Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Pinyon Peak in 2001
Pinyon Peak in 2001 (2001)Photo: Constantinos Bouras, via firelookout.com · source
Pinyon Peak Lookout
Pinyon Peak LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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, 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: staffing, 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: 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, 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.