FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Pierce County, Washington

Gobblers Knob Lookout

Gobbler's Knob is a restored 1933 NPS rustic-style two-story lookout in Mount Rainier National Park, staffed into the 1980s and now used as a hiking destination and standby ranger lookout.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Within Mount Rainier National Park; reached by hiking trail, popular hiking destination.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingTwo-story NPS rustic-style frame structure, about 14x14 feet, live-in cab with catwalk on the upper level, storage below, secured with cables to buried deadmenThe design: National Park Service lookout
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,326 ft (1,623 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pierce County, Washington
Coordinates
46.79403, −121.91417
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-gobblers-knob

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 4.1 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. 1933 BuiltTwo-story frame lookout built, designed by the NPS Branch of Plans and Design under acting chief architect Edwin A. Nickel.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 1980
  3. 1980 Last staffedStaffed into the 1980s as an active fire lookout (decade-level precision only).Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1991 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places, March 13, 1991; part of the Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark District.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  5. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, March 31, 2003 (per queue brief, from NHLR detail page).Source: nhlr.org
  6. 2006 EventExtensively damaged in a windstorm, along with Mount Fremont Fire Lookout; both were later repaired/restored.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  7. 2007 RestoredSeverely damaged in the late-2006 winter storm; got a new roof and was mostly repaired.Source: firelookout.org
  8. 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.

Gobbler's Knob Lookout sits in the far western reaches of Mount Rainier National Park, closer to the mountain's peak than any of the park's other three surviving lookouts.1 It was built in 1933, a roughly 14-by-14-foot, two-story frame cabin that came out of the National Park Service's in-house design shop, the Branch of Plans and Design, while Edwin A. Nickel held the post of acting chief architect.2 The design follows the Park Service's "rustic" style used across Mount Rainier, with a live-in cab and catwalk on the upper level and storage below, and cables anchored to buried deadmen to keep the building from blowing off the ridge in wind.1,2

The lookout was staffed into the 1980s as part of the park's fire-detection network.3 Like several of Rainier's lookouts, it was hit hard by a 2006 windstorm that also damaged the Mount Fremont lookout; both were later repaired.2

Gobbler's Knob was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 1991, and it's counted within the Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark District, which recognizes the park's broader collection of Park Service-designed rustic buildings.2

The structure still stands and has been restored.1 It's no longer staffed full-time for fire detection, but the park now uses it as a popular hiking destination and a standby lookout point worked by backcountry rangers when conditions call for it.1 Because it sits within Mount Rainier National Park, any visit means a hike in on park trails rather than a drive to the door; check current National Park Service guidance before planning a trip, since specific trailhead and distance details weren't confirmed in the sources reviewed here.

  1. Gobblers Knob Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/gobblers-knob-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Gobbler's Knob Fire Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobbler%27s_Knob_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Gobblers Knob Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/gobblersknob.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Gobblers Knob Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Gobblers Knob L.O.
Gobblers Knob L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Gobblers Knob in 2008
Gobblers Knob in 2008 (2008)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Tammy McLeod, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Gobblers Knob Lookout
Photo: Cpopek127, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Photo of Gobblers Knob Lookout
Photo: TrailChick Washington lookout guide (trailchick.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, ownership, 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. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, dates, 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
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: register numbers, 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. TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts Gave us: photos, links TrailChick (trailchick.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, coordinates, elevation, lookout type, years built). The guide's text is not reproduced; its card photos are listed with credit to TrailChick, for the project's photo mirroring. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  9. 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
  10. 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.