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Fire lookout · Kittitas County, Washington

Frost Mountain Lookout Site

Kittitas County lookout: 10-foot timber tower with R-6 cab built 1954, gone by 1988; foundation posts still on the summit, reached by jeep road and trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1988; sources describe foundation posts or a foundation on the summit and no standing structure

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 jeep road (Forest Road 3100) and a trail; a gate on the approach may be locked; no source read describes a closure or a permit

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Willhite: jeep trail climbs 1.2 miles from the Quartz Mountain Road (FR 3100); the final climb is risky. SummitPost (2016): parking by a gate on Forest Road 115, about 3 miles round trip with 500 feet of gain.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat-roof cabThe design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1954
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,740 ft (1,750 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Wenatchee National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Kittitas County, Washington
Coordinates
47.06372, −120.99671
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-frost-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 its recorded height.

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

  1. 1934 EventPanoramic photos from the summit dated August 1934 (FFLOS captions them 'Frost Mountain Lookout'; Willhite says panoramics were taken in 1934). See resolved_conflicts.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1954
  3. 1954 BuiltBuilt 1954 as a 10-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (FFLOS, firelookout.com, Willhite)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1954 and 1988
  5. 1988 RemovedGone by 1988 (FFLOS); firelookout.com gives 'Gone 1988'; Willhite says the lookout lasted 1988Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  6. No record between 1988 and 2012
  7. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered July 20, 2012 as US 1363, WA 263; nominated by Ray KresekSource: 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.

Frost Mountain rises about 10 miles south of Cle Elum, in Kittitas County.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers the site, which lies in the Wenatchee National Forest.1

A lookout went up there in 1954, on a 10-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat-roof cab.1,3 Summit panoramas were made in 1934, twenty years before the tower.1,3 Former Fire Lookout Sites captions them "Frost Mountain Lookout," but no source we read explains how that fits with the 1954 tower.1

The lookout was gone by 1988.1,2,3

Willhite reports that three foundation posts survive and are in sound condition.3 A SummitPost climbing page says the summit's lookout foundation can still be seen.4 No source we read describes a standing structure there now.3,4

Willhite describes a jeep route rising 1.2 miles from the Quartz Mountain Road (Forest Road 3100).3 He says hikers can start walking from a gate on the way if it is shut, and he calls the last stretch up to the summit dicey.3 A SummitPost route note says the road was passable in an ordinary car as of 2016, though it has some potholes near the trailhead.4 It describes parking by a gate on Forest Road 115 and a round trip of about 3 miles with 500 feet of gain to the summit.4 No source we read describes a closure or a permit at the site.1,3,4

  1. Frost Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/frost-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Frost Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/frostmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Frost Mountain Lookout - Pictures & Map, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/hiking/cle_elum/frost_mountain/lookout_191.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Frost Mountain : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/frost-mountain/979455 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Frost Mountain Lookout 1958
Frost Mountain Lookout 1958 (1958)Photo: Rex Kamstra collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (N)
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (N) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (SE)
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (SE) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (SW)
Frost Mountain Lookout panoramic 8-21-1934 (SW) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) 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
  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, height, 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.