FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · King County, Washington

Pyramid Peak Lookout Site

King County, WA cupola lookout built 1923 on Pyramid Peak; L-4 cab followed, gone by 1965; 2023 photos show anchors and possible outhouse or cellar.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register says the lookout was gone by 1965; the guide and a 2026 blog say the buildings burned. Anchors and possible outhouse or cellar remain per 2023 photo captions.

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. A hiking guide and a blog describe hikes to the summit on gravel roads and a trail; neither mentions a closure. No Forest Service statement was read.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Guide: 1 mile hike, gravel road access. Blog: steep 0.7-mile hike up Pyramid Peak Trail #1160. Check current conditions with the Forest Service.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabCupola cabin (1923), later a gable L-4 cab per the register and firelookout.comThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,715 ft (1,742 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
King County, Washington
Coordinates
47.11156, −121.40573
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-pyramid-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 4.2 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. 1923 BuiltCupola cabin constructedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1928 StaffedPhoto caption shows Jess Rose upstairs in the cupola holding the shutterSource: willhiteweb.com
  3. 1938 EventPanoramic images taken from the cupolaSource: willhiteweb.com
  4. 1948 BurnedGuide says the USFS burned down the cupolaSources: willhiteweb.com, wrylyriley3.wordpress.com
  5. 1948 Replaced by a new structureL-4 cab replaced the cupola (register, firelookout.com; blog also says so)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, wrylyriley3.wordpress.com
  6. No record between 1948 and 1965
  7. 1965 RemovedRegister says the lookout was gone by 1965; the cause is not given thereSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  8. 1968 AbandonedBlog says the site was no longer in use by 1968Source: wrylyriley3.wordpress.com
  9. No record between 1968 and 2010
  10. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered October 17, 2010, nominated by Irene PotterSource: 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 Pyramid Peak lookout site sits at 5,715 feet in King County, Washington, about 29 miles east of Buckley.1,2 The land is part of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.1

The earliest structure we found was a cupola cabin, built in 1923.1,2 The Greenwater hiking guide describes it as among the first lookouts in the region, and says the cupola was the source of panoramic photos taken in 1938.3

A 1928 photograph in the guide shows Jess Rose upstairs in the cupola, holding the shutter.3 The guide also reports that Rose once fell from the cupola, through a floor opening, to the level below.3 We found no other lookout names in the sources we read.

The register and firelookout.com say an L-4 cab replaced the cupola in 1948, and that the lookout had disappeared by 1965.1,2 Neither says how it ended. The hiking guide says the Forest Service burned the cupola in 1948, and that an L-4 it may have put up was lost sometime between the 1950s and the early 1960s.3 A blog post from January 2026 says the L-4 burned in the early 1960s and that by 1968 the site had fallen out of use.4 The sources do not agree on the dates or the sequence.

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register added the site on October 17, 2010, on the nomination of Irene Potter.1 Captioned photos in the guide, dated 2023, show lookout site anchors and what may be remnants of an outhouse or cellar along the west ridge.3 The blog describes a steep 0.7-mile route along Pyramid Peak Trail #1160 to the summit. The guide gives one mile on gravel roads.3,4 Neither mentions a closure, so we list the site as open to hikers. Check current conditions with the Forest Service before you go.

  1. Pyramid Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/pyramid-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pyramid Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/pyramidpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pyramid Peak - Greenwater Hiking, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/cascade_crest_trail/pyramid_peak/greenwater_310.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Pyramid Peak - Tales From the Plateau, personal blog, https://wrylyriley3.wordpress.com/2026/01/19/pyramid-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pyramid Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
2001
2001 (2001)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
2001
2001 (2001)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Pyramid Peak Lookout 1937
Pyramid Peak Lookout 1937 (1937)Photo: Rex Kamstra collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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.