Lunch Peak Lookout
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 28 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lunch Peak lookout offers breathtaking views of Cabinet Mountain Wilderness, the Selkirk Mountains and Lake Pend Oreille. Located in the Cabinet Mountains, 35 miles northeast of Sandpoint, Idaho, the lookout sits at 6,414 ft. Guests can enjoy easy access to Pend Oreille Divide Trail #67. The lookout is remote and rustic with no heat, furnishings, water or cooking facilities. This basic structure lets visitors experience the feeling of "roughing it" while enjoying the cozy shelter and incredible views of the mountains and valleys below. Keep reading
Recreation
The Pend Oreille Divide Trail #67 starts just below the lookout and is suitable for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. It follows ridge lines for much of its length and offers great views in all directions. A nice day hike is out to Mt. Pend Oreille and back. 8 miles roundtrip.
Facilities
The 15'x15' cabin was remodeled in 2002 and sits atop a 15' high cinder block foundation. No water or heat is provided. The lookout has limited furnishings which include a sleeping platform, table and cabinet. A modern vault toilet is located at the Pend Oreille Divide trailhead, 300 feet away. The last four miles of the access road is rough in spots and high clearance vehicles are necessary.
Natural Features
The lookout is located northeast of Sandpoint, Idaho and Lake Pend Oreille at an elevation of 6,414 feet. Bear, deer, elk, and cougar are among the wildlife native to the area. Visitors are cautioned to be aware of and practice bear safety while staying at Lunch Peak Lookout.
Nearby Attractions
The closest convenience store and fuel is located in Hope, Idaho, approximately 20 miles or a one hour drive.
Charges & Cancellations
CLOSED 2021
What the agency tells you
There is no heat, water or power. Bring everything you need to go camping except the tent. A sleeping platform, table and cabinet are provided. There is excellent cell phone coverage at Lunch peak
No drinking water or water of any kind is available. Bring plenty of water for drinking and cooking.
This is a pack it in, pack it out facility. Bring garbage bags and pack out your trash.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No campfires or charcoal grills allowed at the lookout. There is a fire ring just below the lookout near the trailhead. Please be cautious with campfires. it is almost windy at Lunch Peak
No smoking in the lookout.
Bear Habitat. Mandatory food storage order. All food and attractants must be stored properly in vehicles.
Click here for more information on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests Click here
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…platform, table and cabinet. A modern vault toilet is located at the Pend Oreille Divide trailhead,…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…atop a 15' high cinder block foundation. No water or heat is provided. The lookout has limited…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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
“CLOSED 2021” · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
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 LUNCH PEAK LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 734 ft | $35 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sam OwenKaniksu National Forest · 11 miSpar Lake CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 13 mi
Yaak River Campground (MT)Kootenai National Forest · 16 mi
Green Bay CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 17 mi
Dorr Skeels CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 17 mi
Yaak Mtn. Lookout RentalKootenai National Forest · 18 miFrom Sandpoint take Hwy 200 east 12 miles to Trestle Creek Road; turn left onto Trestle Creek Road #275 and go 12 miles to Lunch Peak Road #1091; turn left onto Road 1091 and go 4 miles to the lookout.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hope, ID
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Lunch Peak Lookout is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →