One of Washington state’s most photogenic hikes, the High Rock Trail — known for its dramatic cliffs and panoramic views of Mount Rainier — is temporarily closed through mid-September. But the reason is one of renewal rather than restriction.

A dedicated team of volunteers is working to rebuild the historic High Rock Lookout, which stood at a 5,685-foot summit for nearly 100 years before it was dismantled in summer 2021 to address extensive vandalism and graffiti. Since then, the base of the lookout structure remained bare and incomplete.

“This is the biggest project we’ve ever done,” said Don Allen, Executive Director of the Sand Mountain Society, a nonprofit known for its efforts to preserve the last of the surviving historic fire lookouts in the Pacific Northwest. “We cataloged all the pieces, took it apart, hauled it all out, stripped all the paint... this one had way more work because of all the vandalism.”

‘It was so hurtful to see it happen’

The original wooden lookout, built over two years in 1930-31, was one of only four remaining fire lookouts in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. No longer staffed for wildfire observation, it had become a target for graffiti and destruction by visitors over the last decade.

“People would bring up Sharpies in their pockets with the intention of writing their names — as if that was just what you were supposed to do,” said Mary Prophit, a retired library manager and longtime local resident who has played a key volunteer role in the restoration.

Prophit had visited the lookout regularly before its decline, often photographing it. When she visited in 2015, the lookout had no broken windows or graffiti, she said, but by the next year, graffiti had begun to appear.

“I would just clean graffiti as much as I could, just because I hated seeing it,” she said. “It just progressed to the point where it cascaded to broken windows. People had actually pulled pieces of the catwalk out and built fires with it. And so it was hurtful to see it happen.”

Restoring a landmark piece by piece

In 2017, the Sand Mountain Society teamed up with the White Pass Country Historical Society and the Forest Service to start the “Save the Rock” campaign and make needed repairs to stabilize the structure.

In 2020, the remaining windows and frames were removed for restoration by backpacking them out. In 2021, the walls and roof of the lookout cabin were disassembled and the materials too large to hike out were airlifted by helicopter.

In keeping with federal historic preservation standards, the goal is to faithfully reconstruct the lookout as it once stood, using as much of the original historic materials as possible.

Each piece disassembled from the lookout in 2020 and 2021 was diligently numbered for eventual reassembly into the exact spot.

The original old-growth fir floorboards and interior tongue-and-groove fir bead board walls — damaged by vandals beyond repair — will be replaced with comparable pieces which Sand Mountain Society volunteers salvaged from the Forest Service Flat Creek compound near Oakridge built during the same era as the lookout.

In spots where new lumber will have to be used, they custom milled boards to 1930 specifications. “This is going the extreme extra mile to keep the historic feel,” Allen said.

“I’ve never seen such attention to detail — to every little nail hole, every little split,” Prophit said.

The airlift that made restoration possible

The multiyear preservation project reached a critical milestone this month. With the help of a specialized crew from Northwest Helicopters of Olympia, Wash., 19,500 pounds of materials were airlifted to the summit in 25 flights.

In addition to the tools and building materials needed to reconstruct the lookout, items included camping gear, canned food, and 168 gallons of drinking water “to allow crews to stay up top and work longer days instead of spending 2.5 hours each day hiking up and down like we did in prior years,” said Allen.

In the days leading up to the July 8 airlift, Allen and a small team of volunteers spent days shuttling materials by trailer to the trailhead. They raced against the deadline of the helicopter’s arrival to get all of the materials sorted, weighed and arranged into large cargo nets.

“I got half an hour of sleep last night,” Allen said on the morning of the airlift. “Went down just after dark and got some stuff down there that we needed...and I just stopped at a flat spot on the road and slept in the car.”

Of all the materials to be sent up to the lookout summit, the most precious cargo was the original lumber and the vintage windows, carefully wrapped.

“That is the original fabric from the building, lovingly and painstakingly refurbished by volunteers over the last four years,” Allen said.

Steep challenges

The High Rock Trail is a 1.6-mile climb with over 1,300 feet of elevation gain. Its narrow, rocky route is unsuitable for vehicles and too impractical to transport construction materials by foot.

During the 10-week restoration, the trail is closed to the public, keeping curious visitors clear of the hazardous construction zone, as well as allowing the crews to work uninterrupted. The trail, widely known on social media as a photogenic destination, has regularly seen as many as 600 daily visitors, many of whom stay after sunset or arrive before dawn to catch the sunrise.

The restoration team expects to complete the rebuild and reopen access in mid-September. Once open, the lookout will be staffed by volunteer docents, who hope their presence will help deter future vandalism.

“We’re really hoping that people respect it when it’s restored,” Allen said. Opportunities to volunteer as docents will be available, he added. “If you can keep somebody in it, even a volunteer, just to greet the public, keep an eye on it — that’s really important.”

“We’d love to save them all, but there’s not enough money, not enough time,” he said. “So we put our energy where we can, and this one’s taking up a lot of energy, but it’s a special place.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/26/volunteers-rebuild-fire-lookout-high-rock-trail-mount-rainier/