Pine Mountain Lookout
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 29 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 · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rustic Pine Mountain Lookout was constructed in 1933 and used for fire detection until 1942. During World War II, the lookout served as part of an aircraft defense monitoring system that extended throughout California. This lookout is historically significant because it only offers 180-degree views of the surrounding terrain, while other lookouts have 360-degree views. The lookout is typically open from May through October and is accessible by car. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and will need to bring several of their own supplies for a comfortable and enjoyable experience at the lookout. Keep reading
Recreation
The lookout mostly offers a prime location for relaxing and enjoying the views. Guests craving more active pursuits can find hiking trails and hunting areas nearby. Floating and fishing on the Eel River are popular pastimes enjoyed by visitors to the area.
Facilities
The inside of the cabin is equipped with a set of bunk beds and four cots, touch lights, a dining table with chairs and storage cabinets. A fire extinguisher and first aid kit are provided for emergency use. A picnic table, fire ring and grill are located outside. An outhouse with a vault toilet is a short distance away. There is no water and electricity. Guests must bring their own water supply, as well as trash bags to pack out their trash. The bunk bed does not have box springs or mattresses. Items such as bedding, lanterns or flashlights, firewood, cookware, utensils and extra toilet paper are not provided.
Natural Features
The lookout is perched on an outcropping, at an elevation of 4,400 feet. It is in a mixed forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, black oak and madrone trees. Bucknell Creek and the Eel River are the major drainages in the area. The windows afford views of endless mountain peaks and offer a good vantage point for watching the evening sunsets. A variety of bird species inhabit the forest, and guests may spot eagles, owls, hawks and osprey. Mountain lions, black bears, black-tailed deer, flying squirrels, bobcats and Tule elk also live in the area. Please be safe around snakes and bears.
Nearby Attractions
The historic town of Upper Lake is approximately 19 miles to the south. This former logging and ranching town offers excellent bird watching, various recreational activities, shops, restaurants and events. The Lake Pillsbury recreation area is seven miles to the northeast. This is the largest lake in Mendocino National Forest and offers many recreational opportunities. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (707) 275-2361.
What the agency tells you
Pine Mountain Lookout is accessed through a gate with a combination lock. The combination is included in your email conformation.
Group size is limited to no more than six people at a time. No overnight camping is permitted within the administrative site outside the rental lookout building.
There is a 2-night minimum stay.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Please pack out your trash and clean the facility before leaving.
Guests are responsible for reporting loss or damage of items provided at the lookout, as well as use of fire extinguisher.
Off-highway vehicles (OHVs) are not permitted in the area.
Click here for more information about Mendocino National Forest.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Firewood may be collected, and is encouraged, in the vicinity for use on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov. A permit is required if you want to take firewood home--contact the Upper Lake Ranger Station.
Fires are only allowed in the provided fire ring and pedestal grill unless prohibited by fire restrictions. All fires must be attended at all times and extinguished before retiring for the night as well as before leaving the site. No smoking or open flames, including lanterns and cook stoves, are allowed inside any of the buildings. Primary access routes will be signed at major road junctions leading to the lookout. A free Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) can be picked up at the Upper Lake Ranger Station kiosk, and Forest Visitor Maps can be purchased there during business hours.
In case of emergency please dial 911 or contact Forest Dispatch at (530) 934-7758.
Forest roads 17N23 and 18N05 are considered suitable for high clearance vehicles only. This is especially true for wet winter and spring months, although during summer months passenger cars often have not trouble along the recommended route. Please check weather conditions for the time you will be arriving and ensure that your vehicle is of a suitable type for the conditions expected.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are located outside. An outhouse with a vault toilet is a short distance away. There is no water and…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is no water and electricity. Guests must bring their own water supply, as well as trash bags to pack out their…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Birding
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Hiking
- Historic site
- 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
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA PINE MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT | 01 | cabin nonelectric | 1.2 mi | $50 |
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
From Upper Lake:
Proceed north on M1/Elk Mountain Road past the Upper Lake Ranger Station. After several miles, as indicated by the sign, turn left onto 18N05.
Soon after leaving M1/Elk Mountain Road, you will come to a three-way intersection. Only the center road (up the hill) and the right-hand road will get you to the Lookout. The right-hand road is in better shape. If you do not have 4-wheel-drive and high clearance, the center road is not recommended.
After a few miles, make the hairpin turn to the left onto 17N23. A gate indicated by a sign will be on the right a few miles along.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Potter Valley, CA
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Pine Mountain Lookout is in California’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Mike Thompson (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →