Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:43 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Mestaa’ėhehe (pronounced mess-taw-HAY) Mountain Fire Lookout is located directly off of Colorado Highway 103 west of Bergen Park and sits at the summit of Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain, which is an active communication tower site in Clear Creek County. In addition to being an active communication site, the area is a popular dispersed recreation use area with hiking, recreational shooting, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and camping. The lookout is a unique structure constructed of native granite which is situated at over 11,000 feet elevation and was built in the 1940s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The cab measures 14 feet by 14 feet and is completely lined by windows on each side and surrounded by a catwalk, all of which sit on top of a one story stone base. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, wildlife viewing, scenic driving, picnicking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing are all easily accessible while staying at the lookout.
Facilities
The lookout contains an electric stove, refrigerator, and heat; beds; table and chairs; cookware and dishes; and an exterior incinerating toilet. Please be aware that visitors are expected to clean and maintain the incinerating toilet to ensure proper operation of the unit. The lookout can accommodate four people per night. Guests will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as well as their own sleeping bags/bedding. 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. During the winter months, the facilities will be cold. In the lookout, there are two small wall heaters, and one space heater. However, with the weather conditions, it’s not always possible for them to keep the place consistently warm. At 11,000 feet it can also be extremely windy. Please come prepared for the extreme winter weather conditions that can happen during your stay.
Natural Features
Besides offering the unique experience of staying in a fire lookout, Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Lookout will provide visitors outstanding panoramic views of the Great Plains, Denver, Mount Blue Sky, Pikes Peak, Longs Peak and other snow-capped peaks. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (970) 295-6600.
Nearby Attractions
Mount Blue Sky Recreation Area, Mount Evans Wilderness Area
What the agency tells you
Please read: - There will not be staff cleaning in between visitors to the lookout, all renters must thoroughly disinfect and clean before they leave. - Pack out all trash and anything brought up during your stay, please do not leave food, supplies or other items behind. - We will offer disposable items for eating. However, renters are encouraged to bring their own supplies. - Follow instructions for the incinerating toilet and do not burn disposable wipes or other cleaning items. - If you are sick or have been exposed to COVID 19, please stay home, cancel your reservation and a refund will be provided.
Entry to the lookout is by combination lock and key and the combination will be printed on confirmation letter
There is no water; guests must provide their own water for drinking, cooking and washing.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
There is no tent, trailer or RV camping at the site.
Please pack out all trash and clean cabin before departure.
Pets are not allowed.
Doors should be locked and all personal items removed upon departure.
The lookout is a non-smoking facility.
This location is an active communication site and contractors frequently visit the site to service and make repairs to antennae.
During the frequent summer lightning storms, stay in the lookout and do not touch metal furnishings; the lookout is equipped with a lightning protection system.
During the winter months, visitors should be prepared with winter camping equipment in the event of storms or power outages.
Snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles are not allowed from the parking area.
In case of emergency there is a guest book of instructions of what to do including the location of the nearest emergency facility.
Cell phone coverage may be limited depending on your cell phone company provider or location.
There are no refunds for weather. Please plan for extreme winter conditions and wind chills.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…people per night. Guests will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, as…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Night sky · 512th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 30 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 16:43 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:43 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.
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
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:43 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
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.
| Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire LO | Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire LO | lookout | 20 ft | 4,650 ftMetz Creek | $80 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Echo Lake5.7 mi
West Chicago CreekArapaho National Forest · 8.8 mi
Columbine CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 9.9 mi
Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO)Arapaho National Forest · 11 miCold Springs CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 11 mi
Pickle GulchArapaho National Forest · 11 miPlease follow the directions provided below and do not use other navigation applications. From Idaho Springs and Interstate 70, take Exit 240 (Colorado Highway 103) and drive south over the bridge on Colorado 103 for 19 miles. Turn right onto Forest Road 192.1, a dirt road and continue for one mile where you will come to parking area before a locked gate. Proceed on foot one mile up the road past the locked gate to the Lookout Tower. Do not block access to any of the gates. Winter Access: Interstate 70, take Exit 240 and drive south over the bridge on Colorado 103 for 19 miles to Forest Road 192.1. Park at pull off or along the right hand shoulder of the highway and continue on foot on the road heading up for one mile where you will come to a gate. Pass around the gate and continue for one more mile to the Lookout Tower.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blue Valley, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 47°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
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
Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. 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 moneyJoe NeguseU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado
Dear Joe Neguse, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout 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. Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout. 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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout (Arapaho National Forest, Colorado) 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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout 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. Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout. 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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout (Arapaho National Forest, Colorado) 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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout 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. Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout. 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 Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire Lookout (Arapaho National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com