Red Oak 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 15:40 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
Red Oak Fire Lookout is approximately 12 miles south of Cowen, West Virginia. It sits at an elevation of 3,704 feet. Guests enjoy the area for its magnificent views, wildlife viewing and historic background. The original Red Oak Fire Tower in Webster County was erected using Civilian Conservation Corps labor in 1934. It was a wooden framed structure with a wooden cab. In 1964 it was replaced by the current metal structure, which was an improved design of the time period. Like all of the fire towers on Forest, it was retired by the late 1970s. The tower still stands and is in good condition and is now used as a recreational opportunity. Keep reading
Recreation
The site is an ideal location for birdwatching, hunting, gravel bike riding, and stargazing. Other activities that require a short driver are hiking and biking trails and fishing.
Facilities
The tower cab has lights and an electric outlet. There is a vault toilet onsite. The campsite has a 50 and 30 amp service for RVs. There are picnic tables, a combination fire ring/grill, and lantern post at the site.
Natural Features
The site is located in a portion of the Forest with active management. Timber activities provide wildlife with a diverse habitat. The Cranberry and Williams Rivers are nearby, providing fishing opportunities for both native and stocked trout.
Nearby Attractions
The towns of Cowen and Richwood have basic supplies and restaurants. The Cranberry Mountain Nature Center, located 20 miles from the site, has educational displays, nature programs, and a gift shop.
What the agency tells you
Check Out time is 11:00 am and Check In time is 3:00 pm
Walk-in use is not allowed; reservations must be made via the Recreation.gov website or call center prior to arrival
There is a vault toilet onsite. No water available; campers must bring their own.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
All trash must be packed out. Users may deposit trash at either Bishop Knob or Big Rock Campground on their way home. Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack-it-in, pack-it-out' facility
Entry is by combination lock at gate and at the cabin; confirm combination on your confirmation letter prior to arrival.
Tower cab is limited to 2 people and campsite is limited to 10 people for a total site limit of 12 people and 4 vehicles.
The 14-by-14 facility sits atop an 80-foot tower. It is equipped with two cots and two folding chairs to accommodate up to two adults. Renters must provide their own linens/sleeping bags and pillows
The campsite at the base of the lookout tower has a modern vault toilet, 2-picnic tables, a fire ring, lantern post and a 30 and 50 amp RV hookup. The tower cab has electric lights and an electric outlet.
The lookout is a 80-foot tower and guests must be prepared to climb and carry provisions up the steep stairway; due to the height of the tower, children under age 14 are discouraged. The climb to the tower can be strenuous for some. The campsite at the base of the tower is available for those who may not be able to access the tower.
No pets allowed inside the tower cab. Thery are permitted at the campsite. If you bring a pet please clean up after them.
Cell phone is unreliable unless you are close to town.
No smoking is allowed inside the cab. No candles or open flame light or heating source are permitted inside the cab. A non-open flame source, such as a battery-powered lantern and/or electric space heater is suggested.
During the frequent summer lightning storms if you do not have time to get to your vehicle, stay in the lookout and do not touch metal furnishings; the lookout is equipped with lightning protection systems.
The tower cab, because of the historical nature, does not meet accessibility standards. The campsite amenities are accessible.
Snow and ice are possible on the access road in the spring and fall. Please check the forecast prior to your arrival or call the Gauley Ranger District for a weather updates at (304) 846-2695.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and an electric outlet. There is a vault toilet onsite. The campsite has a 50 and 30 amp service…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Scenic drives
- Wilderness access
Full this Saturdayread 15:40 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 15:40 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 · 13
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 15:40 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| Lookout | Red Oak Fire Lookout Tower | cabin electric | 50 amp | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big RockMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Bishop KnobMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Cranberry CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Cranberry River CampsitesMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Day Run CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Pocahontas CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 miApproximately 12 miles from Cowen and 15 miles from Richwood, WV.
From Cowen, go east on State Route 46 to Forest Road 101. Follow Forest Road 101 5 miles to the site.
From Richwood travel east on State Route 39/55 to Forest Road 76, travel for 6 miles north to Forest Road 81. Follow Forest Road 81 for 6 miles to Forest Road 101. Take a right onto Forest Road 101 until reaching intersection of Forest Road 101 and Forest Road 82. Take Forest Road 82 to the site.
The agency publishes this point for 10 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Durbin, WV
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
Red Oak Fire Lookout is in West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Riley Moore (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 moneyRiley M. MooreU.S. Representative · West Virginia’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames C. JusticeU.S. Senator · West Virginia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationShelley Moore CapitoU.S. Senator · West Virginia
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 Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
Dear Riley M. Moore, I’m a constituent in West Virginia’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Red Oak 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Oak Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Oak 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 Red Oak Fire Lookout (Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia) 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 Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
Dear James C. Justice, I’m a constituent in West Virginia. I tried to camp at Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Red Oak 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Oak Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Oak 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 Red Oak Fire Lookout (Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia) 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 Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
Dear Shelley Moore Capito, I’m a constituent in West Virginia. I tried to camp at Red Oak Fire Lookout, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Red Oak 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Oak Fire Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Oak 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 Red Oak Fire Lookout (Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia) via campanac.com