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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Slide Ridge Lookout Site

Slide Ridge (also Slide Peak) L-5 cab built 1935, sold and removed in 1939; location uncertain and no remnants found on the highest point.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Sold in 1939 and removed per FFLOS and firelookout.com. WillhiteWeb found no remnants on the highest point and says the exact location is uncertain.

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. Reached by National Forest roads and a fire trail per WillhiteWeb; no closure or permit found in the sources read

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Park at the saddle under Slide Peak and walk a fire trail about one mile up the ridge, per WillhiteWeb. High clearance advised for the road.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-5 cabThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,598 ft (1,706 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.91393, −120.26551
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-slide-ridge

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. 1935 BuiltL-5 cab per FFLOS; WillhiteWeb cites a 1935 lookout inventory entry for Slide PeakSources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1939 RemovedSold in 1939 and removed per FFLOS and firelookout.com; Washington Forest Lookouts gives 1939 removalSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, washingtonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 2012
  4. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: October 28, 2012Source: FFLOS register entry
  5. 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 Slide Ridge lookout was an L-5 cab, built in 1935 in the Wenatchee National Forest, in Chelan County.1

The name is not consistent across sources. WillhiteWeb cites a lookout inventory that lists a 1935 L-5 cab on Slide Peak, with the same sale and removal, so the sources appear to describe one lookout under two names.2

The cab was sold in 1939 and removed, according to the register and firelookout.com. Washington Forest Lookouts gives only the 1939 removal.1,3,4

The exact spot is uncertain. WillhiteWeb has found no map or document that fixes the spot, so for the moment it places the lookout at the east point of Slide Peak.2 The register lists the site at 5,598 feet.1

According to WillhiteWeb, no one has turned up remnants on the highest point, which has a good deal of level ground.2 It notes that a fire-line trail may have erased any traces, though the short life of the lookout may have left little behind.2 Getting there is a drive on forest roads and a short hike. WillhiteWeb's route runs up FR 59 along Twenty-Five Mile Creek from Lake Chelan, then turns left onto FR 8410 and climbs the ridge. It advises high clearance and describes a hike of about one mile up a fire trail, with 650 feet of climbing.2 Fire Lookout places the site 13 miles northwest of Chelan.3

  1. Slide Ridge Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/slide-ridge-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Slide Ridge Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_lookouts/slide_peak/lake_chelan_357.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Slide Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, Fire Lookout (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/wa/slideridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Slide Ridge - Forest Lookouts, Washington Forest Lookouts, https://washingtonlookouts.weebly.com/slide-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Slide Ridge Lookout site
Slide Ridge Lookout sitePhoto: Eric Willhite, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Slide Ridge Lookout site
Slide Ridge Lookout sitePhoto: Eric Willhite, 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, 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: 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, 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.