FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Skagit County, Washington

North Mountain Lookout

A 1965 R-6 tower north of Darrington, closed for years to vandalism, was restored by volunteers and reopened in 2022 as an overnight rental.

Visit & stay

You can rent this lookout for overnight stays through Airbnb.

Managed by
Friends of North Mountain

Book on Airbnb

This rental is listed by the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s rentals list, checked 19 Oct 2026; the association does not run rentals. Rules, fees and seasons change, so confirm on the booking page before you go.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Overnight recreation rental run by the Friends of North Mountain under a Forest Service special use permit; reservations go through the group. Potable water not available at the site.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive Forest Road 2811 about 6.5 miles beyond the sharp turn. When the gate is closed, TrailChick (2018 visit) describes a road walk of about 2.5 mi round trip with 443 ft gain.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2006)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 cab on a 41-ft timber towerThe design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1965
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
3,757 ft (1,145 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (Darrington Ranger District)
Land
Federal land
Location
Skagit County, Washington
Coordinates
48.31828, −121.60295
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 19 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-north-mountain

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 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. 1962 EventFire camp; first fire observer lived in a tent, and the camp was the lookout's home through 1966Sources: firelookout.com, trailchick.com
  2. 1965 BuiltCurrent 41-ft R-6 timber tower. TrailChick and Discover Darrington say 1965; firelookout.com says 1966Sources: trailchick.com, discoverdarrington.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1966 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  4. No record between 1966 and 2009
  5. 2009 ClosedProposed for removal and officially closed to the public because of vandalism damageSource: trailchick.com
  6. 2013 EventFriends of North Mountain formed to restore the lookoutSource: trailchick.com
  7. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 3, 2015 as US 1095, WA 61Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2021 Opened as a rentalListed for overnight rentals in summer 2021Source: trailchick.com
  9. 2022 RestoredRestoration complete after eight years and more than 100 volunteers; reopening ceremony on Wednesday, August 10, 2022Source: heraldnet.com
  10. 2025 RestoredMaintenance work done on the lookout.Source: firelookout.org
  11. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

North Mountain Lookout is a 41-foot timber tower with an R-6 cab on a summit north of Darrington, in Skagit County.1,2,3 It was built to watch the North Fork Stillaguamish valley.4

The site started as a fire camp in the early 1960s, and a fire observer lived in a tent there.2,4 The camp was the lookout's home through 1966.2 The current tower went up in 1965, according to TrailChick and Discover Darrington, though firelookout.com gives 1966.2,4,5 Its R-6 cab was a prefab design developed in 1963 for helicopter transport.4 The lookout stayed active into the 1980s and was occasionally used for emergencies after that.4 A 2006 visit report in the NHLR marks it unstaffed and cites a publication that lists it as emergency use.1

Vandalism plagued the tower over the years.2,4,5 In 2009 the tower was put forward for removal and formally closed to visitors after vandal damage.4 Local residents formed the Friends of North Mountain in 2013.4 The NHLR registered the lookout on January 3, 2015.1 The restoration ran eight years and relied on over 100 volunteers.6 The Herald wrote that the tower would probably have been demolished without that effort.6 It reopened at a ceremony on Wednesday, August 10, 2022.6

The lookout now works as a rental.3 TrailChick says it was listed for overnight stays in the summer of 2021.4 According to the Forest Service, the Friends of North Mountain operate it as a recreation rental under a special use permit issued by the Darrington Ranger District, and bookings go through the group.3 To drive there, head north from Darrington on Highway 530 for about a mile and turn left onto North Mountain Road. About five and a half miles on, that road becomes Forest Road 2811; a mile past that, a sharp right keeps you on 2811, and the lookout is another six and a half miles ahead.3 The Forest Service lists no potable water at the site.3 TrailChick notes that when the gate is closed, the lookout is a short road walk away, as it was on a July 2018 visit during restoration work.4

  1. North Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/north-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. North Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/northmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. North Mountain Lookout, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mbs/recreation/north-mountain-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. North Mountain, TrailChick, https://trailchick.com/wa-state-fire-lookouts/north-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. North Mountain Lookout Story, Discover Darrington, https://www.discoverdarrington.com/visiting/where-to-stay/north-mountain-lookout-story/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. "A labor of love": Restoration of lookout north of Darrington now complete, HeraldNet, https://www.heraldnet.com/2022/08/15/a-labor-of-love-restoration-of-lookout-north-of-darrington-now-complete/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

2009
2009 (2009)Photo: Gary Weber, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
North Mtn. L.O.
North Mtn. L.OPhoto: Tim Thorlton and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
North Mtn. L.O.
North Mtn. L.OPhoto: Tim Thorlton and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of North Mountain 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association: lookout rentals Gave us: rental details, links Forest Fire Lookout Association rentals list (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only (state, name, booking link, manager, closure note), no prose copied. The FFLA says it is not involved in managing any rental program. · retrieved 19 Oct 2026
  4. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
  5. 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
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, 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, height, agency, access, staffing, 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.