Clearwater Lookout Cabin
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 13 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 25 of the next 30 nights read 16:27 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clearwater Lookout Cabin is a single story, wood frame structure constructed in 1935. It is tucked at the base of the Clearwater Lookout tower, a 94-foot steel tower constructed by the Civil Conservation Corps in 1933. Through the years, the tower has been used as a landmark by the public and employees of the Forest Service. The tower is no longer manned during fire season, but it is used on occasion during extreme fire conditions. The tower is closed to public access, but the rental cabin is open year-round. The cabin is located about 25 miles south of Pomeroy, Washington in the Umatilla National Forest. Access by car is from June 1 to October 31 weather permitting. In winter, access is limited to cross country skis, snowshoes or snowmobile. Keep reading
Recreation
Horseback riding and hiking trails can be accessed from the cabin. During spring and summer, guests can enjoy a short and scenic drive along the Tucannon River to Sunset Point. Mushroom and berry picking may also entertain guests. At night, guests enjoy gazing up at the star-filled sky. Winter brings avid snowmobilers and skiers to explore its groomed trails.
Facilities
The cabin is divided into a kitchen and a bedroom, and is furnished with four extra-long single beds. It is kept warm in the winter by a propane heater, and features propane lights, a cook stove and a refrigerator, as well as some cookware, dishes and utensils. However it is suggested that visitors bring their own dishes, pots, pans and utensils. There is a firepit and picnic table outside. An outhouse is located nearby. The cabin was updated inside and out during the summer of 2023. There is no water on-site, so visitors must bring plenty for drinking, cooking and washing. Other things to bring include bedding or sleeping bags, flashlights, dish soap and other basic camping gear. General cleaning is expected before departure. Mop, bucket, broom, and cleaning supplies provided (water is not provided). Cleaning service is not always available between guests, please leave the cabin as you would like to find it.
Natural Features
Perched at 5,600 feet elevation, Clearwater Lookout Cabin offers panoramic views of the expansive Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, from sunrise to sunset. The rugged landscape of the wilderness stretches across the northern Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. The mountain slopes are carpeted with bunchgrass, lodgepole pine and subalpine fir. An array of wildlife, including Rocky Mountain Elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed and mule deer, black bears, cougars and coyotes may be spotted.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest general stores and gas stations are in Pomeroy, a 40-minute drive from the cabin.
Charges & Cancellations
For Reservation Changes & Cancellation Fees, please see Rules & Reservation Policies.
What the agency tells you
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock; please call the Pomeroy Ranger District at 509-843-1891- Monday-Friday 7:30-4:30 Closed weekends & holidays, one week prior to arrival for the combination to the cabin.
No potable water at this site; guests must bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking and washing
Please bring your own garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' site. Cabin should be cleaned before departure. Mop, bucket & cleaning supplies provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
This is non-smoking facility. All Forest Service cabin rentals prohibit smoking
Please contact the Ranger District prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire closures, road, weather or storms, etc., that may affect the quality of your stay. We will no longer authorize refunds for inaccessibility due to inclement weather conditions.
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
One dog is allowed at this facility, no other pets are permitted.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “An outhouse is located nearby.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and out during the summer of 2023. There is no water on-site, so visitors must bring plenty for…”
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Historic site
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:27 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:27 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
“For Reservation Changes & Cancellation Fees, please see Rules & Reservation Policies.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:27 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA CLEARWATER LOOKOUT CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 2,746 ftPataha Creek | 90 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Clearwater Big HouseUmatilla National Forest · 0.4 miTeal Spring CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 0.9 miBig Springs CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 2.5 miAlder Thicket CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 3.9 miLadybug CampgroundUmatilla National Forest · 4.6 mi
Tucannon Guard StationUmatilla National Forest · 5.9 miFrom Pomeroy, take 15th Street south which turns into Peola Rd and follow for 8 miles. The road then turns into Mountain Road, follow for 7.5 miles on pavement to the forest boundary. Continue on Forest Service Road 40 for about 9 miles to Clearwater Junction. The cabin is located to the right at the base of Clearwater Lookout Tower. Guests may park right beside the cabin, but not on the concrete helipad.
Automobile access to the site is from June 1 to November 1. In winter, visitors must park at the Rose Springs Sno-Park, about 1.5 miles inside the forest boundary. From this point, guests can either snowmobile or cross country ski about 6.5 miles on a beginner to intermediate-level trail. Know the weather forecast before leaving as winter weather can change quickly.
A Washington State Sno-Park permit is required to park at the Sno-Park. Permits can be purchased from any Washington State Park office.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pomeroy, WA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Clearwater Lookout Cabin is in Washington’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Michael Baumgartner (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMichael BaumgartnerU.S. Representative · Washington’s 5th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Michael Baumgartner, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Lookout Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Lookout Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Lookout Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Lookout Cabin (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Lookout Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Lookout Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Lookout Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Lookout Cabin (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Clearwater Lookout Cabin, Umatilla National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clearwater Lookout Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clearwater Lookout Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clearwater Lookout Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clearwater Lookout Cabin (Umatilla National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com