Four Fire Tower Hikes

Words and photos by PERRY VAN HOUTEN

Here are hikes to the sites of four old fire lookouts in Los Padres National Forest. Each hike will give you a good workout, a bird’s-eye view of the wilderness, and a feel for a proud part of the forest’s past. The first two fire towers are somewhat close to home, while the others require a longer drive into the backcountry.

Take Highway 33 north for 39 miles to Lockwood Valley Road and turn south on Grade Valley Road. Check the U.S. Forest Service website before you go to make sure the road is open. A high-clearance vehicle is recommended to Thorn Point Campground, where the hike begins. This old, abandoned stand built in 1933 remains remarkably intact, with 360-degree views from up top that can’t be beat. But make no mistake — the 7-mile round-trip hike will wear you out.

Standing guard over Pyramid Lake and a huge area of steep canyons on the eastern edge of Los Padres National Forest, the tower is staffed at times by volunteers with the Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association. When I visited a few summers ago, there was a lookout on duty who invited me up into the cab to have a look around.

To get there, take Highway 126 east to northbound I-5 and exit at Templin Highway.

The nearest fi re lookout to Ojai, visible from certain areas in town, this tower was built in 1935 and destroyed 13 years later in the catastrophic Wheeler Fire. The lookout was replaced in 1950 but burned again in the 1970s and was dismantled. The metal superstructure is all that remains.

The lookout, at an elevation of 4,850 feet, is accessible from the Pratt Trail (12-mile round trip) and Gridley Trail (14 miles) in the Ojai front range, and the Howard Creek Trail from Rose Valley (about 10 miles). Any route you take, the last mile to the peak will test your determination.

The all-wood structure burned to the ground in 1932, only five years after it was built, but you can still find old timbers anchored to the rocks atop the 7,514-foot peak. From Highway 33, take Reyes Peak Road (aka Pine Mountain Road), past the last campsite, to the trailhead. Just east of the parking area, the trail splits three ways. Take the middle, less-defined path steeply up the mountainside. The trail levels out, and then climbs again to a cluster of rocks and the old lookout site. Continue north until the road ends at a parking area. Walk north past the locked gate for not quite 2 miles and look for a gated, unsigned dirt road on the left. It’s about 5.5 miles one-way to the lookout.

Published since 1982 by the Ojai Valley News

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