Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho
Rocky Ridge Lookout
Clearwater National Forest cabin lookout in Idaho County, Idaho: log cabin with 1924 cupola cabin, abandoned in the 1940s; sources differ on the 1914 or 1917 start.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as ground gone. No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site.
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?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as drive-up.
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cablog cabin, with a cupola cabin from 1924The design: Cupola house
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1917
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Clearwater National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Idaho County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 46.44625, −115.51218
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-rocky-ridge
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 3.7 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
- 1917 BuiltLog cabin, per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; the 2016 Forest Service list gives 1914Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
- 1924 BuiltCupola cabin, per all three sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
- No record between 1924 and 1940
- 1940 AbandonedSources say the 1940s only; no exact year is given. 1940 is the start of that decade, used as a sort keySources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.
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.
Rocky Ridge is in the Clearwater National Forest, about 14 miles east-southeast of Pierce in Idaho County, at 6,540 feet.1,2
The lookout began as a log cabin. Two sources date that cabin to 1917, while a 2016 Forest Service list gives 1914.1,2,3 The Forest Service list records the type as a log cabin, not a tower.3 A cupola cabin was added in 1924.1,2,3
The sources date the end of the lookout to the 1940s.1,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives only the decade, not a year.2 The firelookout.com page sums up the run as 1924 to the 1940s, a start date later than the 1917 cabin date it gives elsewhere on the same page.1
The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as a ground site that is gone.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as drive-up.2 No source we read describes what remains at the site today, or whether the public may visit it.1
- Rocky Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/rockyridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Rocky Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/rocky-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (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: dates, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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
- Clearwater National Forest Lookouts (USDA Forest Service) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Rocky Ridge on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Rocky Ridge Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.