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Fire lookout · Yakima County, Washington

Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Site

L-4 cab on Bear Creek Mountain in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, built early 1930s, last staffed 1945, gone by 1960; no source describes remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1960 per the register and two other lists; no source found describes what remains at the summit

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. Reached by a Forest Service trail inside Goat Rocks Wilderness; a free wilderness permit is filled out at the trailhead. No closure found in the pages read

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Forest Service lists the Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Trail (1130 A), reached from the Section 3 Lake or Conrad Meadows trailheads. The trail is in Goat Rocks Wilderness and is not recommended for horses.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab on the summitThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,336 ft (2,236 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wenatchee National Forest per firelookout.com)
Land
Federal land
Location
Yakima County, Washington
Coordinates
46.52782, −121.34490
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-bear-creek-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 3.9 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 BuiltSources say the L-4 cab was built in the early 1930s; 1930 is used as the start of that decadeSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1934 EventPanorama photos taken from the site on July 24, 1934Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1945 Last staffedLast staffed in 1945 per the register, firelookout.com and WillhiteWebSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1945 and 1960
  5. 1960 RemovedSources say 'gone by 1960' and do not say how the cab left the summitSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1960 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered with the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on July 19, 2012Source: firetower.org
  8. 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.

The lookout on Bear Creek Mountain was an L-4 cab, built on the summit in the early 1930s.1,2,3 WillhiteWeb places the site in the Goat Rocks Wilderness at an elevation of 7,336 feet.3 The Washington lookouts list files it under Yakima County.4

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register, firelookout.com and WillhiteWeb all give 1945 as the last year the lookout was staffed.1,2,3 We found no source that names anyone who worked the lookout.

All three sources say the cab was gone by 1960, but none of them says how it left the summit.1,2,3 The Washington lookouts list gives July 24, 1934 as the date panorama photos were taken from the site, and it marks the lookout as "Removed" without a year.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the summit today. The Forest Service lists the Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Trail as number 1130 A, and says Bear Creek Mountain Trail #1130 is reached from the Section 3 Lake or Conrad Meadows trailheads.5 Entry requires a free wilderness permit, completed at the trailhead.5 Willhite says the road holds up until the last half mile, where high clearance is best but may not be needed.3

We list access as public, with a wilderness permit needed to enter.

  1. Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/bear-creek-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bear Creek Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/bearcreekmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/bear_creek_mountain/goat_rocks_245.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Bear Creek Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Washington Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/bear-creek-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Bear Creek Mountain Lookout Trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/okanogan-wenatchee/recreation/trails/bear-creek-mountain-lookout-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bear Creek 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.