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Fire lookout · King County, Washington

Bare Mountain Lookout Site

King County, WA L-4 cab built in 1935 and gone by 1973; sources disagree on destroyed vs removed, and none describes the summit today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and Firelookout.com say destroyed in 1973; Forest Lookouts says removed; no source describes remains

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. WillhiteWeb describes a 4.5-mile hike and says the mountain sits just inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness; no closure is mentioned

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
4.5-mile hike; road to the trailhead has good gravel most of the way but can wash out (WillhiteWeb)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,335 ft (1,626 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
King County, Washington
Coordinates
47.64938, −121.50750
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-bare-mountain

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 4.2 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 EventPanorama photos taken August 24, 1934, 10 feet above ground; first structure unknownSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1935 BuiltL-4 cab built in 1935 (Register and Firelookout.com; WillhiteWeb reports others' information)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. 1935 EventWillhiteWeb says the summit had a lookout station from 1935 to 1973Source: willhiteweb.com
  4. 1942 EventActivated June 26, 1942 and deactivated September 16, 1942, listed under the Seattle Filter Center; purpose not statedSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 1973
  6. 1973 DestroyedRegister, Firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb say destroyed in 1973Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. 1973 RemovedForest Lookouts says the lookout house was removed in 1973Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1973 and 2012
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered January 25, 2012; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  10. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bare Mountain sits in King County, Washington, inside the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, at 5,335 feet (1,626 meters).1 Panorama photographs dated August 24, 1934 show a stovepipe and a weather station.2,3 WillhiteWeb says they were shot from 10 feet up and that the first structure is unknown.3

The Register and Firelookout.com describe an L-4 cab built in 1935.1,4 WillhiteWeb dates the summit's lookout station to 1935 through 1973.3 The sources we read do not name anyone who staffed it. Forest Lookouts also lists the site as activated at the Seattle Filter Center from June 26 to September 16, 1942, but it does not explain what that work was.2

The Register and Firelookout.com both say the cab was destroyed in 1973.1,4 Forest Lookouts says the lookout house was removed that year,2 and WillhiteWeb also gives 1973 as the end.3 The sources disagree on whether it was destroyed or taken down, but all of them place the end in 1973.1,4,2,3

We found no source that describes the summit today, so we cannot say what, if anything, remains there. WillhiteWeb describes a 4.5-mile hike and says the access road is mostly decent gravel but can wash out.3 It also says the mountain sits barely inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.3 We did not find a report that the trail is closed.

  1. Bare Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/bare-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bare Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/bare-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bare Mountain Trail - North Fork Snoqualmie, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/hiking/northfork_snoqualmie/bare_mountain/trail_202.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Bare Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/baremtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bare Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: 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. 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
  5. WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts Gave us: links WillhiteWeb.com · No licence stated; names and page links only (the site's photos and text are not reproduced). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.