FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Skamania County, Washington

Sleeping Beauty Lookout Site

Sleeping Beauty rock-top lookout cab, built about 1930-31 and gone after 1966; footings and eye bolts remain, reached by a hikers-only Forest Service trail.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed a few years after 1966 per FFLOS and WillhiteWeb; firelookout.com says destroyed. Footings and a foundation remain per WillhiteWeb 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. Forest Service trail open to hikers only; closed to all motorized use and bicycles

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
FS Trail #37 is 1.4 miles and very steep; WillhiteWeb lists 1.5 miles and 1,400 feet of gain. Directions: west about a mile from Trout Lake to Road 88, then north on 88 for 7 miles.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabGable-roof L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
14 ft (4.3 m)
Elevation
4,907 ft (1,496 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Skamania County, Washington
Coordinates
46.09294, −121.64933
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-sleeping-beauty

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 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 BuiltAround 1930 per WillhiteWeb and Washington Forest Lookouts; FFLOS and firelookout.com say 1931Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1930 and 1966
  3. 1966 EventApparently still in use in 1966 per FFLOS; WillhiteWeb says it is said to have been in use thenSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1966 RemovedRemoved a few years after 1966; 1966 is a placeholder since no exact year is given. firelookout.com says destroyedSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1966 and 2012
  6. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: July 17, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  7. 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.

Sleeping Beauty is a rock outcrop in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Skamania County, rising to 4,907 feet.1,2

Sources date the lookout to about 1930 or 1931. WillhiteWeb and Washington Forest Lookouts describe a gable-roofed lookout house from around 1930, while the Former Fire Lookout Sites register gives 1931.1,3,4

Getting supplies up was the hard part. A January 1931 story in The Sunday Oregonian, quoted by WillhiteWeb, described packhorse loads that took 11 days to reach the base, then a 700-foot cable worked by a windlass to raise everything 350 feet up the rock.3 Ernie Childs, who worked as a packer for the Forest Service then, said the building came pre-cut from a Portland firm. Don Williams became the first lookout.3

The lookout stood on a rock about 200 feet higher than the land around it.3 The trail climbs past handmade rock walls, some more than 10 feet high, and the Forest Service says the Civilian Conservation Corps did the rock work in the 1930s.3,2

The lookout was apparently still in use in 1966, and it came down a few years later.1,3 The register and WillhiteWeb say it was removed, while firelookout.com says it was destroyed, so the sources differ on how it ended.1,5,3

The Forest Service says the trail leads over bare rock to the old lookout site, and that eye bolts once used to anchor the lookout are still visible.2 WillhiteWeb's photo captions show footings and a foundation still in place.3

The trail is open to hikers only and closed to motorized use and bicycles. The Forest Service lists it at 1.4 miles and very steep.2 WillhiteWeb gives 1.5 miles with 1,400 feet of climbing, and says any car can make the drive. Its directions run west about a mile from Trout Lake to Road 88, then north on that road for 7 miles.3

  1. Sleeping Beauty Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/sleeping-beauty-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Trail #37 Sleeping Beauty Peak, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/giffordpinchot/recreation/trails/trail-37-sleeping-beauty-peak (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Sleeping Beauty Lookout Site - Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WillhiteWeb.com, http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/sleeping_beauty_lookout/gifford_pinchot_260.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Sleeping Beauty - Forest Lookouts, Washington Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/sleeping-beauty.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Sleeping Beauty Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/sleepingbeauty.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Sleeping Beauty Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sleeping Beauty Lookout 1944
Sleeping Beauty Lookout 1944 (1944)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Sleeping Beauty Lookout (no date)
Sleeping Beauty Lookout (no date)Photo: Ron Kemnow collection, 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, 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: height, 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.