Fire lookout · Clallam County, Washington

Bogachiel Peak Lookout Site

Also known as Bogachiel

Bogachiel Peak lookout in Olympic NP: built 1934-35 under the NPS, Aircraft Warning station in summers from 1942, abandoned in the 1950s and reported gone; no remains described.

Gone
Open to the public
Verified

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in the 1950s and now gone, per the FFLOS register; no source describes what remains on 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. Hiking route in Olympic National Park; WTA describes a 0.3-mile side trip from the High Divide Trail to the summit

Road to the top?: Unknown
Trail: Reached from the Seven Lakes Basin or Hoh River trailheads; WTA says camping is not allowed at the summit

Facts

Status: Gone
Type: Ground-level cabL-4 14 x 14 ft ground cabin (FFLOS register says L-5)The designs: L-4, L-5
Built of: WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built: 1935
Height: Unknown
Elevation: 5,474 ft (1,669 m)
Agency: National Park Service, Olympic National Park
Land: Federal land
Location: Clallam County, Washington
Coordinates: 47.90545, −123.77769
Registers: FFLOS US 821 · WA 38
This entry: VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id: us-wa-bogachiel-peak

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 4.0 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

1933 EventForest Service bought most of the materials for a standard 14 x 14 lookout house and stored them at a Deer Lake shelterSource: willhiteweb.com
1934 EventNational Park Service took over construction; crew began leveling the summit and excavating foundations September 4, 1934; work stopped October 8, 1934 for the winterSource: willhiteweb.com
1935 BuiltCompleted September 10, 1935 as a 14 x 14 L-4 ground cabinSources: willhiteweb.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
1935 EventConstruction resumed July 8, 1935 once the snow had clearedSource: willhiteweb.com
1939 EventUSGS map shows the lookout and trails (photo caption on WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
1942 EventActivated as an Aircraft Warning Service station, summers onlySource: willhiteweb.com
1950 EventA young couple spent their honeymoon at the lookout (story reprinted on WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
No record between 1950 and 2011
2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the FFLOS January 20, 2011 as US 821Source: firetower.org
TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bogachiel Peak, in Olympic National Park in Clallam County, Washington, was the site of a lookout built in the mid-1930s.¹^,² The Forest Service recognized the need for it before the National Park Service took over the area.³ In 1933 the Forest Service bought most of the materials for a standard 14-by-14-foot lookout house and hauled them by packhorse to a shelter at Deer Lake, which was boarded up for the winter.²

The Park Service took over construction in 1934.² Its crew began leveling the rocky summit and digging foundations that September, and work paused for the winter.² Construction resumed in July 1935, and the building was finished on September 10, 1935.²^,³

The register calls it an L-5 cab, but firelookout.com and Rex's page both say L-4, and we have used L-4.¹^,⁴^,³ On June 26, 1942, the site was put into service as an Aircraft Warning Service station, for summers only.² In 1950 a young couple spent their honeymoon at the lookout, according to a story WillhiteWeb reprints.²

The lookout was abandoned in the 1950s.¹^,²^,⁴ The register says the lookout is now gone, and firelookout.com agrees.¹^,⁴ WillhiteWeb has summit photos, including one captioned "Lookout site on November 29, 2019," but the captions do not say what is still there.² We found no description of remains, and no source we read says whether the summit is open today.

The peak is reached on foot. The Washington Trails Association calls it a 0.3-mile side trip from the High Divide Trail to a forested summit, reached from the Seven Lakes Basin or Hoh River trailheads, and says camping is not allowed on the summit.⁵

Bogachiel Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/bogachiel-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bogachiel Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/olympic_mountains/bogachiel_peak/lookout_site_281.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bogachiel Peak - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/bogachiel-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bogachiel Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/bogachiel.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Bogachiel Peak, Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/bogachiel-peak (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bogachiel Peak Lookout Site — Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
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
FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site) 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
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.