Fivemile Butte Lookout
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 11 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:15 UTC
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fivemile Butte Lookout is available for reservation year-round. It provides stellar mountain views and access to a variety of outdoor recreation opportunities, including hiking, mountain biking and wildlife viewing. During the winter months, the lookout is popular among hunters and winter sports enthusiasts. During winter driving conditions, from early fall to late spring, the lookout can only be accessed by skiing, snowmobiling or snowshoeing up to 3 miles one way from a parking area at the Billy Bob Sno-Park. In the summer guests can drive directly to the lookout. Keep reading
A Northwest Forest Pass is required for the parking area at Billy Bob Sno-park, annual or day passes can be purchased in person at the Hood River Ranger Station or online at https://www.discovernw.org/annual-northwest-forest-pass. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Recreation
In the summer months, visitors enjoy hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking in the area, as well as the gorgeous views from the lookout. The lookout is near Eightmile Creek and Eightmile Trail, which travels through and around a riparian area, old growth pine forests and meadows dotted with wildflowers. The area is popular among winter sports enthusiasts as well, as the location provides access to numerous cross country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling trails. It is a shared winter recreation area and lookout guests should expect other winter sports enthusiasts in the area.
Facilities
The cabin is atop a 40-foot tower and is surrounded by a wooden catwalk. The 14-by-14 room is furnished with a small bed, a wood stove for heating and a table and chairs. It has a propane cook stove and solar-powered lights. There is no water on-site. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located on the ground, as well as a shed stocked with firewood. A rope and pulley system is available to transport gear, as well as firewood, up and down the tower with ease. Guests will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as well as their own sleeping bags/bedding, a flashlight or lantern for emergencies, first aid kit, washcloths and towels, dish soap and garbage bags. This is a "Pack it in, Pack it out" facility; guests will need to carry out all trash and clean the facility prior to leaving.
Natural Features
The lookout was originally a small cab on a 30-foot tower, established in the 1920s. In 1932, a standard lookout tower was built to replace the earlier lookout, but was destroyed by heavy snow in 1942. A non-typical lookout structure was rebuilt at the site in 1957. The tower sits on Fivemile Butte, at an elevation of 4,627 feet. It is surrounded by ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and western hemlock forests. Numerous creeks run through the area. A variety of wildlife, including wild turkeys, grouse and blue jays, as well as deer, elk, coyotes, cougars and bears, frequent the area. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (541) 352-6002.
What the agency tells you
For current conditions, please call Barlow Ranger District office at 541-467-2291 or the Hood River Ranger District office at 541-352-6002. The office is staffed Monday thru Friday 8am-4:30pm.
Drinking water is not available at the tower
The combination to the tower and woodshed are both the same and are included in your confirmation email.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Be prepared for extreme winter weather conditions; guests should be experienced in back country travel and survival skills
Please contact the Barlow or Hood River Ranger District offices prior to departing for the lookout, to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms that may affect the quality of your visit
Check-out is 11am, check-in is 3pm.
Firewood is provided for indoor use only.
The height of the cabin and the open catwalk pose serious risks for children and pets; the steps and catwalk can become quite slippery and the tower may sway in strong winds
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…is no water on-site. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located on the ground, as well as a shed stocked…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…cook stove and solar-powered lights. There is no water on-site. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Birding
- Cross Country Skiing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Ranger Station
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:15 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
OpenBookedClosed
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Fivemile Butte Lookout closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Govt Mineral Springs Guard StaGifford Pinchot National Forest · 41 mi · 1 site
- Sunset Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 47 mi · 18 sites
- Fox Creek Group CampWillamette National Forest · 52 mi · 1 site
- Elk Lake CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 52 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 15:15 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 FIVEMILE BUTTE LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 653 ft | 1,763 ft | $85 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Eightmile Campground/Day UseMt. Hood National Forest · 0.6 miPebble Ford Campground/Day UseMt. Hood National Forest · 0.7 miLower Eightmile Crossing Campground/Day UseMt. Hood National Forest · 1.2 miKnebal Springs Campground/Day UseMt. Hood National Forest · 1.9 miUnderhill CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 2.7 miFifteenmile CampgroundMt. Hood National Forest · 4.1 miFrom Dufur, Oregon, travel west on Valley Road for about 18 miles to the junction of Forest Service Roads 44 and 4430, at Billy Bob Sno-Park (the road may be plowed to the Sno-Park). Turn right on Forest Service Road 4430-120, then turn left and follow to the spur road 122. There is a gate that you will have to unlock (in winter months the gate is left open), then follow the 122 road to the end. The route is approximately 3 miles and is marked with orange and blue diamond shaped blazers. This route is not plowed, signed or patrolled.
Forest Service Roads 44 and 4430 are closed from the junction of Forest Service Roads 44/4430 to Highway 35, from Dec. 1st through April 1st, prohibiting motorized vehicles over 48 inches wide without a permit. During this time and later into the year depending on snow levels, visitors should park at Billy Bob Sno-Park and hike, ski, snowshoe, or snowmobile 3 miles to the lookout. A Northwest Forest Pass is required park at the Sno-Park. Maps are available online or for purchase by calling the Barlow Ranger District.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Parkdale, OR
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Fivemile Butte Lookout is in Oregon’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Cliff Bentz (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →