FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Mineral County, Montana

Up Up Lookout

Also known as Upup Mountain

1966 R-6 tower in the Lolo National Forest replacing a 1934 pole lookout, restaffed in 1995, now a Forest Service rental.

Visit & stay

You can rent this lookout for overnight stays through recreation.gov.

Sleeps
Up to 4 people
Getting there
The tower can be accessed by vehicle.

Overview Up Up Lookout is 40 feet tall and perched on a beautiful rock pinnacle in the Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana. It is close to the Idaho border, giving guests a bird's eye view of the entire area. The lookout is a fantastic place by which to view the St. Regis River drainage and the high alpine country. The tower can be accessed by vehicle. Children are discouraged, as the tower has an exterior open stairway. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Recreation The Up Up Ridge Trail takes visitors into the spectacular Ward and Eagle peaks roadless area, where visitors will find several scenic alpine lakes and various points of exploration. The trail leads to other trails, which take hikers and mountain bikers to the 7,300-foot Eagle Peak, providing ample views of the surrounding area. Big game hunters often camp along the ridge. It is also a great place to see vibrantly colored fall leaves, beautiful waterfalls, wildlife, do some berry picking and even fishing. The area holds many scenic and recreational attractions. The trail leads all the way to the Idaho state line, near Ward Peak. Facilities THE LOOKOUT CAN SLEEP UP TO FOUR PEOPLE AND IS EQUIPPED WITH ONE TWIN BED AND MATTRESS PAD. IT IS RECOMMENED TO BRING ADDITIONAL COTS TO SLEEP ON. It has propane lights and a heater. There are no cooking facilities or refrigeration. A campfire ring with a grill and a picnic table are provided at the base of the tower, along with an outhouse with a pit toilet. Guests will need to bring water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as well as cooking equipment and fuel. Cots, bedding, towels, soap, cooking and eating utensils, matches, toilet paper and garbage bags are not provided. Guests will need to clean the facility prior to leaving. Natural Features The wooden tower was built in the 1930s and used as a fire lookout for several years. It is situated between the main highway and the Idaho border, at an elevation of 5,900 feet. With the growing use of aircraft for fire detection, fewer lookouts have been staffed in recent years and many are converted to cabin rentals available to the public. The Lolo National Forest is home to many species of wildlife, from mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bear, mountain lions and moose, to many varieties of smaller animals and birds. Wildlife viewing areas offer guests ample opportunity to view animals in their natural habitat.

Book on recreation.gov

Rental details from recreation.gov, checked 12 Oct 2026. Rules, fees and seasons change, so confirm on the booking page before you go. Data source: ridb.recreation.gov

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service rental cabin; locked gate and cabin, access code sent with reservation

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
set on a rock pinnacle; max stay 3 nights per reservation
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 flat cab, 41-foot treated timber towerThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
5,900 ft (1,798 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service - Lolo National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Mineral County, Montana
Coordinates
47.33222, −115.34333
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 12 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-up-up

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 4.0 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 Builtoriginal 20-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1934 and 1966
  3. 1966 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1966 Replaced by a new structurecurrent 41-foot R-6 flat-cab treated timber tower builtSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1968 StaffedMike Erickson recorded as lookout staff 1966-1968, the last name in the known personnel roster before the gapSource: firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1968 and 1995
  7. 1995 Staffedlookout staffed again, the first time in several years per NHLRSource: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 1995 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, August 28, 2012Source: nhlr.org
  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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Up Up Lookout stands on a rock pinnacle in the Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana, in the Lolo National Forest, at 5,900 feet.1 It wasn't the first lookout on that spot: a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up there in 1934 and was used as a fire lookout until at least 1965.1 The current structure, a 41-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cab, replaced it in 1966.1,2

A roster of known lookout staff survives from the years before the tower was rebuilt and after: Robert Minor in 1955, Joe McBride in 1956, Paul Eve in 1959, Robert Ferguson in 1961, William Hollenberg in 1962, Kenneth Asleson in 1965, and Mike Erickson from 1966 to 1968.2 After that stretch, staffing on the mountain lapsed for a number of years before the lookout was staffed again in 1995, the first time in "several years" according to the National Historic Lookout Register.1

The lookout was added to the Register — US 947 — on August 28, 2012, and has since been placed in the Forest Service's recreation rental program.1,2 A recreation.gov description of the site gives a different age for the wooden tower, calling it a structure "built in the 1930s," which doesn't match the Register's 1966 date for the current tower; it's possible that page is describing the earlier 1934 pole tower rather than the one standing today.3

The lookout now functions purely as a rental cabin rather than an active fire-detection post, in keeping with the broader shift toward spotting fires by aircraft.3 It sleeps up to four people, with one twin bed and mattress pad (additional cots are recommended), propane lights and a heater, but no cooking facilities, running water, or refrigeration. A fire ring, picnic table, and outhouse sit at the base of the tower. Stays are capped at three nights per reservation, and the entry gate and cabin are kept locked, with the access code sent in the booking confirmation.3

  1. Up Up Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/up-up-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Up Up Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/upup.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Up Up Lookout, Recreation.gov, https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/234390 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Up Up Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
circa 1969
circa 1969 (1969)Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Up Up in 1965
Up Up in 1965 (1965)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Up Up in 1994
Up Up in 1994 (1994)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source

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

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access, rental details, links Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association: lookout rentals Gave us: rental details, links Forest Fire Lookout Association rentals list (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only (state, name, booking link, manager, closure note), no prose copied. The FFLA says it is not involved in managing any rental program. · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  5. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, height, 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
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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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