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Fire lookout · Klickitat County, Washington

Monte Cristo Lookout Site

Klickitat County, WA lookout: L-4 cab on a tower built 1930 on Monte Cristo; no longer standing per the Register; Forest Service says evidence remains along Trail 53.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the lookout is no longer standing; firelookout.com marks it abandoned and gone; the Forest Service says evidence of an old fire lookout can still be found on Trail 53

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. Trail 53 is open to hikers, bikers and horse riders per the Forest Service; no closure described in the sources read

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Forest Service Trail 53 is 4.1 miles from the upper trailhead on Forest Road 8600-080. Willhite's North Trail has a hiking distance of 2 miles and its access leaves Highway 141 west of Trout Lake; the last mile is rough, rocky road and there is no parking where the trail leaves the road.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a tower, built 1930The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,171 ft (1,271 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Klickitat County, Washington
Coordinates
45.90561, −121.57397
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-monte-cristo

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 3.7 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. 1930 BuiltL-4 cab on a tower constructed on the siteSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1930 and 1956
  3. 1956 EventUSGS survey referred to a monument 44 feet east of the lookout house's center; the source does not say whether the lookout was in useSource: willhiteweb.com
  4. No record between 1956 and 2020
  5. 2020 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered April 15, 2020, nominated by Tammy McLeodSource: firetower.org
  6. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Monte Cristo lookout stood on Monte Cristo Mountain in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Klickitat County, about seven miles south-southwest of Trout Lake.1,2,3

The lookout went up in 1930.1,4 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register describes an L-4 cab on a tower, and places the site at 4,171 feet.1 Willhite's page says the same: built around 1930, with an L-4 cab.4

The Register says the lookout no longer stands.1 Firelookout.com marks it as abandoned and gone.2 A 1956 USGS survey mentions a monument about 44 feet east of the middle of the lookout house, but does not say whether the lookout was still in use.4

Today the site is reached by trail.3 The Forest Service says Trail 53 runs 4.1 miles along a thinly forested ridge to Monte Cristo Mountain, and that remnants of a 1930s-era fire lookout can still be found there.3 The trail is open to hikers, bikers and horse riders.3 Willhite describes a separate approach he calls the North Trail, with a hiking distance of 2 miles, and its access leaves Highway 141 west of Trout Lake.4 He warns that the last mile is a rough, rocky road, and that there is nowhere to park where the trail leaves it, so you may miss the trail entirely.4

  1. Monte Cristo Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/monte-cristo-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Monte Cristo Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/montecristo.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Trail 53 Monte Cristo, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/giffordpinchot/recreation/trails/trail-53-monte-cristo (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Monte Cristo Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/monte_cristo/lookout_262.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (N)
Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (N) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (SE)
Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (SE) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (SW)
Monte Cristo Lookout panoramic 8-14-1934 (SW) (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Monte Cristo Lookout site
Monte Cristo Lookout sitePhoto: Eric Willhite, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Monte Cristo Lookout site
Monte Cristo Lookout sitePhoto: Eric Willhite, via 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, 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.