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Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Huffman Peak Lookout Site

Gifford Pinchot NF summit in Skamania County, WA. A 1932 L-6 cab is disputed by 1934 photos; the 2020 Big Hollow Fire burned the peak; no standing cab is described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed at an unknown date; the 2020 Big Hollow Fire burned the summit, and no source describes a cab still standing

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 on foot. Forest Road 5701 is closed to the public beyond the Siouxon Trailhead, and hikers travel at their own risk in the burned areas.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Hike Siouxon Trail #130 from the Upper Siouxon (Huffman Peak) Trailhead; WillhiteWeb gives a 2-mile hike from the Siouxon Peak site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-6 cab on a small foundation of built-up rocksThe design: L-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,106 ft (1,252 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
45.97969, −122.16289
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-huffman-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

  1. 1932 BuiltRegister gives 1932 for the L-6 cab; WillhiteWeb's July 1934 panoramas show no structure on the summit, so the date is disputedSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 2012
  3. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered June 24, 2012 as US 1324, WA 224Source: firetower.org
  4. 2020 BurnedBig Hollow Fire burned the summitSource: willhiteweb.com
  5. 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.

Huffman Peak is a summit in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Skamania County, Washington, at 4,106 feet (1,252 m).1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes an L-6 cab from 1932 that may have served as a patrol point for the Siouxon Peak lookout, 1.5 miles northeast.1 WillhiteWeb says the cab stood on a small base of heaped-up rock.2

The sources do not agree on the date. The register gives 1932 as the build year.1 WillhiteWeb's panorama photographs from July 6, 1934, however, show no lookout structure on the summit, and its author thinks the cab was probably built shortly after, even though the lookout inventory points to 1932.2 firelookout.com gives 1932 as the start and no end date.3

The sources we read do not name anyone who worked the cab. WillhiteWeb thinks the Siouxon Peak lookout, which it dates to around 1921, probably used this summit for many years.2

The register says the cab's removal date is unknown.1 The 2020 Big Hollow Fire burned the summit.2

Photos on WillhiteWeb, captioned 2021, show a summit platform, rock work and a phone box at the top. The author notes that nuts, screws, bolts and glass still lie there.2 We found no source that says the cab survives.

The Forest Service says the Big Hollow Fire has shut Forest Road 5701 to the public past the Siouxon Trailhead.4 Hikers can start at the Upper Siouxon Trailhead, which the agency also calls the Huffman Peak Trailhead, and follow Siouxon Trail #130 to where it joins Huffman Peak #129.4 WillhiteWeb describes a two-mile hike from the Siouxon Peak site, while the register puts that lookout 1.5 miles away. We have not reconciled the two figures.1,2 The agency warns that hikers in the burned areas do so at their own risk.4

  1. Huffman Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/huffman-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Huffman Peak Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/fire_lookouts/huffman_peak_lookout/forest_service_025.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Huffman Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/huffmanpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Trailhead: Siouxon, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/giffordpinchot/recreation/trailhead-siouxon (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Huffman Peak 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.