Fire lookout · Yakima County, Washington
Round Mountain Lookout Site
Yakima County, WA summit: a 20-foot L-4 pole tower reported built 1935 (1934 panoramas show earlier work), destroyed in 1976; footings remain and a trail reaches the summit.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The last tower was destroyed in 1976 (FireLookout.com, WillhiteWeb); the register says removed in 1976. The register describes concrete footings farther back and tie-downs near the south edge.
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. Forest Service trailhead at the end of Forest Road 530, reached by a 7.2-mile rough gravel road. Wilderness regulations apply.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Round Mountain Trail from the Indian Springs trailhead off Forest Road 530; WTA lists 5.2 miles round trip. There is no tower to climb.
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab; FireLookout.com also lists an L-6 ground cabThe designs: L-4, L-6
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1935
- Height
- 20 ft (6.1 m)
- Elevation
- 5,971 ft (1,820 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service (Wenatchee National Forest; now Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Yakima County, Washington
- Coordinates
- 46.63417, −121.33083
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wa-round-mountain
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 its recorded height.
Downloads about 4.1 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
- 1934 EventPanorama photos of the site taken in July 1934; the photos show cut trees and some wiresSources: washingtonlookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
- 1935 BuiltReported as built in 1935 as a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab; WillhiteWeb questions the dateSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
- No record between 1935 and 1976
- 1976 DestroyedThe last tower was destroyed (FireLookout.com, WillhiteWeb); the register says removedSources: firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com, firetower.org
- No record between 1976 and 2010
- 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 4, 2010 as US 625, WA 9Source: firetower.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Round Mountain is in Yakima County, Washington, in the Naches Ranger District, near the Goat Rocks Wilderness.1,2 The site was listed under the Wenatchee National Forest, and the trailhead is now listed under the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.1,2
Most sources date the tower to 1935: a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.3,4,5 Panorama photos were taken in July 1934, and WillhiteWeb points out that the 1934 panoramas already show cut trees and some wires.1,5
The register describes two different structures. Tie-downs near the south edge appear to have held a ground cabin, and concrete footings farther back appear to be from a tower. It is not known whether both stood at the same time.3
FireLookout.com and WillhiteWeb date the loss of the final tower to 1976.4,5 The register says it was removed in 1976 instead.3
The summit is still a short hike.6 WillhiteWeb's photo captions show Round Mountain lookout posts and a brass benchmark.5 WTA reports that tree growth since the lookout era has somewhat restricted the views.6
The easiest way to the top starts at the Indian Springs trailhead off Forest Road 530, and WTA gives the round trip as 5.2 miles.6 The Forest Service says Wilderness regulations apply, and the road to the trailhead is 7.2 miles of rough gravel.2
- Round Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (washingtonlookouts.weebly.com), https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/round-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Round Mountain Trailhead - Naches, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/okanogan-wenatchee/recreation/round-mountain-trailhead-naches (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Round Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/round-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Round Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/roundmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Round Mountain & Twin Peaks, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/hiking/white_pass/round_mountain_trail_261.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Round Mountain, Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/round-mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- FFLOS register entry US 625 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- Round Mountain (Washington Trails Association) (opens another site)
- Round Mountain Trailhead - Naches (Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest) (opens another site)
- FFLA Washington lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Round Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Round Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- Round Mountain on WillhiteWeb.com Washington Fire Lookouts (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.