FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Tyee Mountain Lookout

Also known as Tyee Lookout

An L-4 groundhouse built in the 1950s (replacing a 1931 cab) in Washington's Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, famous for reporting the 1994 Tyee Fire; now a rough-access volunteer-maintained rental, closed for 2026 due to nearby wildfires.

Visit & stay

You can rent this lookout for overnight stays through recreation.gov.

Getting there
Starting with the access road, the lookout is accessible by four-wheel drive truck from mid-June to mid-October.

Overview The Tyee Lookout sits at an elevation of 6,654 feet in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Built in the 1950’s, the lookout was used by Forest Service personnel until the 1990’s. A stay at Tyee is not for the faint of heart, this is a rough place. Starting with the access road, the lookout is accessible by four-wheel drive truck from mid-June to mid-October. The last 3.6 miles of the road are narrow, steep, sandy and very rocky; including two rock ledges, good tires are a must. Once at the lookout the ground is also rocky and uneven, just walking around can present challenges to those not fleet on their feet. Two sides of the lookout drop off very steep to the valley below, a fall would be bad, keep kids away from the edge and do not let them play on railing. Sitting at the top of the mountain, the wind blows frequently, and can be much cooler than the valleys. The lookout is an old structure, although remodeled dirt and dust still blow in. As an alternative to driving, the lookout is accessible by walking the last 4 miles up the road. Recent upgrades to the building will make your stay comfortable, but are still primitive, guests should be prepared with their own supplies. Recreation Nearby roads, the Tyee Ridge trail and Billy Ridge trail offer opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, and dirt biking. Although you may still see the light of a faraway house from the top, the star gazing is still very good. Facilities The 16x16 cabin sleeps four and is equipped with four single foam mattresses, two on regular frames and two on trundle style frames. A bench, broom and dust pan are provided. A portable toilet is located 30 yards from the lookout behind a privacy screen. This is for poop not pee, please be prepared to pee away from the lookout behind a tree. The lookout has LED strip lights that provide a lot of light. Guests must bring their own: Water for drinking, cooking and washing Cook stove and propane Cookware and dishes Bedding Flashlight, first aid supplies, trash bags and maybe a game or two. Natural Features Views from the lookout include Stormy Mountain, numerous peaks in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and east to the Waterville Plateau. The rocky outcrop is home to whitebark pine, a species on decline, please respect and admire this tree. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (509) 860-4267. Nearby Attractions Billy Ridge and Tyee Ridge trails are adjacent to the lookout.

Book on recreation.gov

Rental details from recreation.gov, checked 19 Oct 2026. Rules, fees and seasons change, so confirm on the booking page before you go. Data source: ridb.recreation.gov

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service rental via Recreation.gov, but requires 4WD high-clearance vehicle or ~4-mile hike; closed for 2026 season due to wildfires

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Final 3.6 miles of access road (FS 5713) are narrow, steep, sandy, with two rock ledges; alternative is a roughly 4-mile walk
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabHip-roof L-4, 14x14 ft (NHLR) / listed as 16x16 ft cabin (Recreation.gov) groundhouse with catwalkThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,511 ft (1,985 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.86395, −120.47111 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 19 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-tyee-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 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. 1931 BuiltAn earlier L-4 cab on the same site, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1950
  3. 1950 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  4. 1952 Replaced by a new structureNHLR dates the current hip-roof L-4 groundhouse to 1952Source: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1952 and 1994
  6. 1994 FireTyee Fire started as a lightning strike reported by the lookout; burned ~180,000 acres over weeks, destroyed 22 homes and the lookout's outhouseSource: nhlr.org
  7. 1995 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, July 1, 1995Source: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 1995 and 2013
  9. 2013 ClosedEntiat RD Fire Management Officer reported lightning protection system out of code; no budget to upgrade, no plans to use Tyee for fire detection (per Feb 8, 2013 report by Ken Jones)Source: nhlr.org
  10. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Tyee Mountain Lookout stands at about 6,654 feet in what is now the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, east of the Cascade crest in Chelan County, Washington.1,2 An earlier L-4 cab stood on the same site starting in 1931; the Wenatchee National Forest replaced it in the 1950s with the hip-roofed, 14-by-14-foot L-4 groundhouse that stands there today, complete with a catwalk.2,3 Sources differ slightly on the exact year — the National Historic Lookout Register gives 1952, while another lookout survey simply says "the 1950's" — likely because one is dating the replacement structure and an earlier source may be counting from the original 1931 cab.3,2

The lookout earned a moment of grim fame in the summer of 1994, when it reported what began as a small lightning strike that grew into the Tyee Fire, a blaze that burned roughly 180,000 acres over several weeks, destroyed 22 homes, and even burned down the lookout's own outhouse.3 Forest Service personnel staffed the tower into the 1990s.1 By 2013, a Forest Fire Lookout volunteer reported that the Entiat Ranger District had deemed the structure's lightning protection system out of code, with no funds budgeted to fix it, leaving no plans to use Tyee for fire detection going forward even though volunteers had put real work into its upkeep.3 Since then it has relied on volunteer maintenance and sometime staffing by volunteers coordinated through the district.3

Tyee Mountain Lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on July 1, 1995.3 It is now rented out as a Forest Service recreation cabin, a 16-by-16-foot room that sleeps four on foam mattresses, though Recreation.gov's own listing calls it "a rough place": the final 3.6 miles of access road are narrow, steep, sandy, and cross two rock ledges, requiring a four-wheel-drive, high-clearance vehicle (or a roughly four-mile walk), and the ground around the lookout itself is rocky and uneven with steep drop-offs on two sides.1 As of this writing, Recreation.gov lists Tyee Lookout as closed for the remainder of the 2026 season because of nearby wildfires.1

  1. Tyee Lookout, Recreation.gov, https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/10132085 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Tyee Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/tyee.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Tyee Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/tyee-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tyee Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
View of Mott Creek fire from interior
View of Mott Creek fire from interiorPhoto: Ken Jones, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Tyee Mountain Lookout, 2009
(2009)Photo: Ken Jones, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Tyee Mountain Lookout, 2009
(2009)Photo: Ken Jones, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Tyee Mountain Lookout, 2009
(2009)Photo: Ken Jones, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tyee Mtn. in 1999
Tyee Mtn. in 1999 (1999)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Tyee Mtn. in 1999
Tyee Mtn. in 1999 (1999)Photo: Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Tyee 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 1.0 km (0.6 mi).

    • NHLR: 47.86395, −120.47111
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 47.85485, −120.47092

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1950
    • OpenStreetMap: 1952
    • TrailChick: Washington State Fire Lookouts: 1952

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access, rental details, links Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 19 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: 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
  6. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: what it is built of, register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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

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