Upper Lake Chelan has a 12,000+ acre fire burning called the Pioneer Fire.  There is a massive response going on with something like 12 helicopters and 700+ firefighters.  Here is a photo taken by [...]

You will see on the main menu -- a new section on the Sourdough Mountain lookout.  I staffed that lookout twice and will be posting some pictures from those days including a painting I [...]

Currently starting to read a memoir -- The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak.  It is about a couple from back East that staffed some LOs in St. Joes Forest in Idaho in the early 1970s. [...]

Here is a similar shot of me one time manning the nearby Sourdough LO --- which has a long series of steps up ---  good times !

My son took this picture of me standing in the Deso  doorway. I am usually smiling  LO duty but I looked at little pensive that day.....probably quiet with little radio traffic, no smokes  and no [...]

As many of you know---back in the 1930s the USFS had photographers do panoramic photos from many lookout sites in the West---and that includes Desolation Peak.  This last Sunday's Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine had [...]

My good friend Bruce R. sent me a small version of one of those classic old time National Park posters. I didn't know there was one for the North Cascades, a mostly unknown park. But [...]

9-17-23  Well the fire blew up again with several days of hot summer weather.  So far the North Cascades Pass is still open however. Here is a shot from yesterday...click on this link-- Sourdough Fire [...]

Wonderful surprise this morning in the New York Times -- an article on Fire Lookouts.  Please see: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/climate/wildfire-lookouts-fire-towers.htm This article may be behind a paywall so hopefully many of you are NYT subscribers...........  Desolation Peak [...]

Has reopened again as of this morning 🙂, there is now an additional fire along the Pass east of Sourdough around Blue Lake