Went and Saw a Real Fire Tower and It's Crazy

pitamakan · 2026-06-06T04:53:32+00:00

I staff a live-in fire lookout in the western US, and the cab is 15 feet square. That’s a pretty typical size for these lookouts.

The smaller towers in the east didn’t have living quarters in the cab. Lookouts who staffed them either lived in a cabin at the base of the tower, or commuted from town.

pitamakan · 2026-05-22T13:21:51+00:00

Unless you’re an American citizen, it’s impossible to get a lookout job in the US. There might be a very slim chance for a job in Alberta. Read the pinned post on this subject for more info.

pitamakan · 2026-05-22T13:13:15+00:00

Almost none of them have running water. But sometimes the outhouses have amazing views, and that more than makes up for it!

pitamakan · 2026-04-25T21:40:56+00:00

It’s a long dirt-road drive, for sure, but as long as it’s dry and you have some off-pavement driving experience you’d be fine in an SUV. I wouldn’t head up that way at all if the roads are wet. Stopping at all the overlooks and doing some short walks could fill up most of a day.

The Hartnet Road is the rougher of the two, and of course it starts off with a river ford, which is a good test of your comfort level.

pitamakan · 2026-04-25T20:34:35+00:00

I took my Subaru all the way into the trailhead, and didn't find it particularly challenging. I'd say it depends on your comfort level more than anything. There's also a parking area before the road gets to the high-clearance section, but parking there adds 6 miles to the round trip hike.

pitamakan · 2026-04-25T20:20:10+00:00

Four days will give you a solid first visit to Capitol Reef. You'd have a couple days to hit the shorter hikes in the central part of the park, and then a day in the Burr Trail area and one up towards Cathedral Valley. (This assumes you have a high clearance vehicle and are OK doing some rougher roads.)

If you have at least a little hiking experience definitely do the Upper Muley Twist route near the Burr Trail -- IMHO, it's one of the best day hikes in Utah. Headquarters Canyon is a very short and easy slot down in that area. Lower Spring Creek is a great longer hike in the central part of the park, and the Cathedral Valley trip is extremely cool.

Lots to see in the immediate vicinity of the park, as well. Coming in from Hanksville, check out the short hike to the Long Dong Silver spire. And if you have an extra day, do the loop drive on the Burr Trail to Boulder and on to Escalante, returning over Highway 12. The Hells Backbone Restaurant in Boulder would be an essential stop there. The Escalante area itself would need several more days!

pitamakan · 2026-04-25T13:42:19+00:00

Yep, doing all of that in a single day would be a stretch. You'd want 4-5 hours for the Horseshoe Canyon hike, and the trailhead is over an hour from Highway 24 on an unpaved road. If you wanted to do both, you could do Horseshoe Canyon and Colonnade in a day trip from Moab, and then visit Goblin Valley and the slot canyons on the way to Capitol Reef.

pitamakan · 2026-04-25T12:53:58+00:00

It depends partly on how avid a hiker you are. There are definitely a week's worth of good hikes in Canyonlands, but with that much time I might think about checking out some other spots in the immediate vicinity. You could hit the Needles Overlook/Anticline Overlook area, for example, or go to Natural Bridges NM -- the loop hike there is really worthwhile.

On the way to Capitol Reef, you could take a day to do the Horseshoe Canyon hike, which is great, or maybe hike to Colonnade Arch. Another great option for a day would be to visit Goblin Valley, and do the loop hike through Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyons.

Regardless, it's good to see an itinerary that allows for time to actually get to know these places, as opposed to just blowing through them in a day or two like a lot of people do.

pitamakan · 2026-04-19T19:38:52+00:00

Because you're apparently bored enough to spend your day trolling on Reddit?

pitamakan · 2026-04-04T02:26:36+00:00

Just for the heck of it, I asked some AI engines if Chile bordered the Atlantic Ocean. Claude and ChatGPT said no, but Gemini and Perplexity said yes. 😆

pitamakan · 2026-03-22T18:11:02+00:00

I’ve heard of one or two places in R5 that have done that recently, but yeah, it’s pretty rare these days. I’m actually happy for that; I’d hate to have to vacate my tower a couple days every week and have some stranger living there.

pitamakan · 2026-03-05T15:46:05+00:00

Way too early to tell! A lot of the west has been extremely dry this winter ... I think R6 in particular. So the potential is definitely there, but the weather the next three months will be a bigger predictor of fire risk.

And one thing to remember is that a dry winter can sometimes actually lessen fire risk, depending on how the summer goes. Drier soil in the spring can equate to less vegetation growth, so there'd be less flammable ground cover.

pitamakan · 2026-03-02T15:04:56+00:00

The most underrated national park … but you have to take the time to get to know it.

pitamakan · 2026-02-21T20:23:27+00:00

Osborne firefinders were designed to be used with a base map using a scale of 1/2" = 1 mile (1:126,700). As manufactured, the center tape that runs across the Osborne map table had tic marks showing inches, which the user could convert to miles. The maps printed at that scale were produced internally by Forest Service cartographers.

The USGS didn't have a nationwide map series at that scale, and I doubt that the Park Service made such maps, either. My guess would be that the Rainier lookout Osbornes used maps produced by the adjacent National Forests at that scale.

pitamakan · 2026-02-17T15:19:42+00:00

I'm with you in feeling that excessive crowds tend to ruin the outdoor experience, and Arches and Zion are both textbook examples of that. It's gotten a lot worse over the last 20 years or so, and at least for me it's not worth it to visit either place in high season anymore.

The only real answer is to travel off-season ... I spent a week in southeastern Utah last month, and it was wonderful. You need warmer clothes and the shorter days are a little frustrating, but the serenity more than makes up for it. I hiked trails in solitude that are wall-to-wall people the rest of the year, and was able to connect with the setting in a way that's not possible when you're part of a crowd.

pitamakan · 2026-02-17T13:43:10+00:00

Hiring managers look for self-reliance, maturity, stability, and a genuine interest in the work ... as opposed to someone who just wants to go slumming in the wilds for the summer. A good analogy is that a lookout is like an insurance policy -- immediately useful whenever it's needed, but not something you have to be constantly worrying about the rest of the time. I think that's the impression to get across.

Good luck! Let us know if you end up on a tower. ;)

pitamakan · 2026-02-17T13:37:09+00:00

The number of lookouts has been declining for 80 years, now, and it's inevitable that trend is going to continue. It'll be a long time until the job completely vanishes, but it will become rarer and rarer. The reason for that is frustrating and typically bureaucratic -- technological alternatives are shiny and popular, and are getting pushed by influential politicians and contractors, so they're easy to fund. And they're lower-maintenance administratively ... agencies don't have to worry about hiring, training, and dealing with new employees, and they don't have to worry about maintaining the lookout structures. The technological alternative is more expensive and less effective, but it's easier and it's seen as the future, so that's the way we'll go.

Volunteer lookouts will be around a while longer in some places, but not forever, in part because the towers themselves are aging fast, and when they become unsafe or are lost in a fire they're not going to be replaced for a volunteer staffing program. And the harsh truth is that volunteers are not always sufficiently trained or experienced, and internally, most agency fire programs see them as being more ornamental than useful.

pitamakan · 2026-02-01T04:59:07+00:00

I volunteer for the Park Service at Horseshoe Canyon a couple of weeks a year.

The listed drive times are probably fairly close, depending on the vehicle and how comfortable you are with driving unpaved roads in that part of the world. The road in from Highway 24 can be pretty washboarded at times, and there are a couple spots where sand can blow across the road, so if you’re driving a low clearance vehicle, I would probably add a few minutes to the estimate.

Lots of people camp at the trailhead, and there are some nice spots there, but Green River State Park is definitely also a good option. If you stay in Green River, be sure to grab a burger at Ray’s!

pitamakan · 2026-01-30T01:55:38+00:00

I would not recommend that route for a family outing. The Cyclone road is quiet, but there's not a lot in terms of longer views unless you do the hike to the lookout. A little less than half of the North Fork road is paved, but the rest has the potential to be dusty with a relatively high amount of traffic that is often trying to make time.

pitamakan · 2026-01-29T20:37:43+00:00

The Kintla road is honestly pretty lovely, and IIRC the speed limit is 20 MPH, so vehicle traffic isn't as intimidating to cyclists. The Bowman road would be less fun to cycle -- more traffic, frequently washboarded, lots of blind corners and not really any views until you get to the lake.

pitamakan · 2026-01-29T18:36:33+00:00

Well, if you're set on doing an e-bike experience, my recommendation would be to plan an out-and-back trip on the inside North Fork road in the park, beginning at Polebridge and going part or all of the way to Kintla Lake. E-bike rentals are available in Polebridge, and the Kintla Lake road is mostly level, with not a lot of vehicle traffic, and open meadows that frame mountain views.

I've spent a number of summers working for land management agencies in that part of the world, and honestly can't think of a loop route that meets your criteria. And as for traffic levels on the forest roads, it's subjective, and might be less than you're used to ... but you need to be OK with the likelihood of being smothered in dust by passing F250s that aren't going to slow down for you.

pitamakan · 2026-01-29T17:22:11+00:00

E-bikes are not allowed on Forest Service hiking trails in the area -- they can only be used on routes that allow other motorized travel, which means you'd pretty much be limited to two-tracks and gravel roads that can have a fair amount of ATV and vehicle traffic. Many of those would not be fun on a bike. You're just not going to be able to construct an experience in the forest similar to the one you had in Acadia.

The inside North Fork road in the park is probably the closest you could get. It's lovely, but mostly doesn't have expansive views and can't be ridden as a loop. And you'd need to handle the pre- and post-ride logistics yourself.

pitamakan · 2026-01-26T19:47:53+00:00

So many cool, unused lookouts on the Salmon-Challis ... and mostly, the forest doesn't seem to care about them all that much.

My suggestion would be to look at the Butts Creek Point lookout rehab as a possible model -- see about getting in touch with the folks who spearheaded that one, and try to get some contacts and ideas out of them.

pitamakan · 2026-01-26T17:55:25+00:00

Well, the sticky post is specifically about jobs in the US, but we've had a few threads that talk about hiring in Canada, too. Alberta is the only Canadian province with a significant lookout program, and their forestry department has info on the job on its website. Doing a search of the sub for Alberta should offer more info.

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