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Fire lookout · Klickitat County, Washington

Grayback Lookout Site

Also known as Grayback Mountain

Grayback Mountain, Klickitat County WA: L-4 cab built 1945, two-story DNR cab 1972 removed 1996; access now restricted by gates per one undated report.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The two-story DNR cab was removed in 1996. The sources read do not describe what, if anything, remains on the summit now.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. WillhiteWeb reports that a landowner behind a gate said all access is restricted and new signs are posted. The page gives no date for this.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
WillhiteWeb gives 5.5 miles from the lower gate and 4.3 miles from the upper gate, with 1,600 feet of elevation gain.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab (1945); later a two-story DNR cab (1972)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1945
Height
Unknown
Elevation
3,766 ft (1,148 m)
Agency
Washington Division of Forestry/DNR
Land
Unknown
Location
Klickitat County, Washington
Coordinates
45.99083, −121.08397
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-grayback

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 3.8 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. 1945 BuiltL-4 lookout cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1950 StaffedBuck Yeley, State Forestry Service lookout at Greyback MountainSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1953 StaffedDewey Hapgood took over the lookout stationSource: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1956 StaffedJuanita Ward, a Whitworth College sophomore, planned a third summer as the lookout (April 1956 report)Source: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1956 and 1972
  6. 1972 BuiltTwo-story DNR cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. No record between 1972 and 1996
  8. 1996 RemovedTwo-story DNR cab removedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  9. No record between 1996 and 2012
  10. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterFFLOS US 1366, WA 266, registered July 20, 2012Source: firetower.org
  11. 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 site on Grayback Mountain sits at 3,766 feet in Klickitat County.1,2 An L-4 lookout cab went up there in 1945.1,2,3 The site is administered by the Washington Division of Forestry/DNR.1

In 1950, Buck Yeley was the State Forestry Service lookout at Greyback Mountain.4 Dewey Hapgood took over the station in 1953.4 In 1956 a newspaper reported that Juanita Ward, a sophomore at Whitworth College, would spend her third summer as the lookout.4

In the mid-1950s a somewhat flat area on the summit was used as an airstrip by air patrol pilot Bob Edling, and the cab was one of his lunch stops.1,3

A two-story DNR cab was built in 1972, and it was removed in 1996.1,2,3

WillhiteWeb's notes disagree about whether a lookout stood on top in the 1970s and 1980s.3 One correspondent said there was none in 1973.3 A 1979 DNR survey made no mention of one, but a 1989 National Geodetic Survey crew did.3

In an undated note, WillhiteWeb reports that a landowner behind a gate said all access has been restricted and new signs have been posted.3 WillhiteWeb gives the route as 5.5 miles from the lower gate and 4.3 miles from the upper gate.3 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today.

  1. Grayback Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/grayback-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Grayback Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/grayback.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Grayback Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/grayback_mountain_lookout/map_300.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Grayback Mountain, Forest Lookouts (quoting Goldendale Sentinel, Mt. Adams Sun and other local papers, 1950-1960), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/grayback-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Grayback 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, 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.