The next hike was at a fire lookout called, appropriately, Lookout Mountain. This hike was interesting to me, because several of my family, including my Dad, Mom, and Uncle Phil, were in the Forest Service. I felt like I got to glimpse a bit into my family’s past in this hike.

It starts off at the top of a forest service road, and believe it or not, this was Brook’s first experience on one of these roads! One of the differences between the National Parks and National Forest, is that the National Parks (and State Parks for that matter) usually have well-paved, maintained, and monitored roads and parking areas; the National Forest…does not.

So after several passes over a few craters here and there, and what can only be described as boulders, we were able to get our Sentra up to the trailhead! Proof that unless weather conditions are terrible, it’s really more about the attention and conscientiousness of the driver, than about the vehicle that they’re driving.

This hike was a good deal more steep in elevation; it was about 1200 feet gain, but only over about 1.75 miles in distance, so it was a bit of a burner! Totally worth it though. The beginning of the trail had a bunch of wildflowers in bloom, which was really cool to see; Neither Brook nor I have been hiking high enough at this point in the year to be able to see these.

After about 1000 feet up, the trail levels off, and follows the ridgeline until it goes up the last couple hundred feet to the lookout at the top.

One of the more obscure traditions that once existing in my extended family, was taking pictures of each other taking pictures. I am not sure why we found this so amusing, but we did. The proof still exists today in old albums. So I thought this would be a nice homage to my aunts and uncles at the peak. Aunt Susie and Aunt Carroll, this is for you:

I was too chicken to attempt climbing into the lookout, but Brook was not, so I got a good picture of her hanging out up top.

Since this was originally intended as a fire watch lookout, you can see a 360 degree view from this point. Great hike, and again lucked out with beautiful weather; slightly overcast, so not too hot, and no bugs! I would definitely do this hike again. Maybe next time, I’ll venture into the lookout.