Heybrook Lookout

The trail to Heybrook Lookout starts from a gravel lot on the north side of U.S. Highway 2, just past milepost 37, where the highway enters Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The lot is about two miles east of the turnoff for Index. The Washington Trails Association’s guide calls it “more like a glorified shoulder off Highway 2.” An information kiosk stands about 20 feet up Trail 1070, which is for hikers only. There is no toilet at the trailhead.

A mile through the second growth

The path runs east alongside the highway for a short way. Then it turns left and climbs away from the traffic into a second-growth forest that, the Forest Service says, grew back after clear cutting in the 1920s. Ferns and moss cover the ground. WTA trail crews have worked the tread almost every year, recently in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026. The trail is one of the first in the area to come clear of snow, and the Forest Service names it an early-season hike.

The sources give different figures for the climb:

• Recreation.gov: a one-mile walk with 900 feet of gain.
• The WTA: two miles round trip, 980 feet of gain, and a high point of 1,800 feet.
• The Everett Branch of The Mountaineers: 1.3 miles and about 850 feet of gain from a trailhead at 850 feet.

Just short of the top, the trees open on the mountains across the highway, and the tower stands up from the ridge behind.

Stairs to the deck, and a cabin above it

Heybrook Ridge stands at 1,700 feet. Recreation.gov says the lookout rises 67 feet above it. The Mountaineers call it a 70-foot tower, and a 2017 Portland Monthly article put the cabin 72 feet in the air. Recreation.gov counts 84 steps to the main cabin, and the WTA counts 89 to the viewing area. A picnic table sits at the foot of the tower for those who would rather not climb, and a vault toilet lies several hundred feet down the ridge.

The observation deck is open to the public; Portland Monthly placed it on the seventh level. The Forest Service lists the view as Mount Persis, Mount Index, Bridal Veil Falls and Philadelphia Mountain, with more distant peaks to the east. Recreation.gov adds Mount Baring and the Wild Sky Wilderness. The falls come down the side of Mount Index. Recreation.gov says visitors may see black bear, bobcat, elk and bald eagle. Wolves are returning to the area, but they “are usually heard and not seen.”

The top floor is a cabin 14 feet square that sleeps four. It holds one twin bed with a mattress, two floor mattresses, a table and chairs, a propane stove, a pot and pan, silverware, a coffee pot and battery lanterns. There is no water on the ridge, so overnight guests carry up what they will drink, cook with and wash in. They pack out all food and trash. Candles and incense are prohibited, and pets may not go in the cabin or on the stairs. Renters reserve through Recreation.gov and collect the key at the Skykomish Ranger Station. The WTA gives the rental season as May through October, and Recreation.gov warns that early snow can block October access. Recreation.gov counts Heybrook as one of only 106 lookouts left in Washington State.

Tent platform, log legs, TT flat

The first Heybrook fire lookout, built in 1925, was a simple tent platform. Seven years later the Forest Service replaced it with a 45-foot log leg tower, which The Mountaineers call an L-4 cabin. A cabin on the ground was meant as sleeping quarters for the fire rangers. According to Recreation.gov, rampant rodents drove the rangers up into the tower, and they lived there until the present lookout went up. Recreation.gov and The Mountaineers date that structure, a 67-foot TT flat, to 1964; the Forest Service gives 1965. In the WTA’s phrase, each lookout on the site has been “a little taller.” The Forest Service and The Mountaineers both credit the design of the original lookout to Dan Evans, former governor of Washington State. The lookout was staffed until the early 1970s.

Vandals, a parking-lot hut, a lightning arrestor

By 1996, Portland Monthly reported, several waves of vandals had ransacked the tower. They cut through the catwalk to the top cabin, smashed and tagged the cabin, and stripped the tower of the copper wiring that protected it from lightning.

That same year the Everett Mountaineers began work under a Challenge Cost Share Agreement. It was authorized by Marcia Hanson, the club’s president, and Dennis Bachor, a Forest Service supervisor. The branch’s Lookout and Trail Maintenance Committee tore down the dilapidated hut atop the tower. Its volunteers built a new hut from the original plans in the parking lot of the Skykomish Ranger Station. Then they took it apart, carried it to Heybrook, hoisted it to the top of the tower and put it together again. The eight-year project drew hundreds of volunteer hours and thousands of dollars from businesses and organizations. It was finished by the end of 2002, and the notice of completion is dated January 12, 2003.

The top cabin still lacked lightning protection. In Portland Monthly’s account, the Forest Service walled off the top level until money could be found for a new arrestor system. For “10 years and change,” day hikers used the observation deck while the cabin stayed shut.

In 2017 the Seattle outfitter Filson led work parties to clean up graffiti and repair trails. It also paid much of the cost of a new aluminum lightning arrestor, in a partnership arranged by the National Forest Foundation. The Forest Fire Lookout Association fixed broken doors and a damaged propane system. On September 1, 2017, Recreation.gov opened the cabin for overnight stays at $75 a night. By the magazine’s count, that made it the second rentable fire lookout in Washington. “We want everyone to be able to get in there, so we try not to keep the rates too high,” said Forest Service spokesperson Colton Whitworth. Within days the six-month reservation window was full.

The ranger district then hoped to recruit volunteer stewards. They would check the facilities, maintain the trail and watch for vandals in exchange for a free stay. “It’s easy to get to, and there are people who are up there quite a bit,” Whitworth said. “The thing that’s going to be hard for us is making sure that we have someone in there all the time.” The Forest Service’s page for Heybrook carries a line of its own: “Vandals will be ticketed.”