Steliko Lookout
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 45 mi
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 29 of the next 30 nights read 15:27 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Steliko Lookout sits at an elevation of 2,586 feet in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Built in 1947, the lookout was used by Forest Service personnel until the 1990’s. The peak is still used by staff during emergencies to get a view of the surrounding area. The lookout is accessible by SUV or four-wheel drive truck from mid-April to mid-November. The road is narrow and steep at the beginning, please use all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive to limit road damage. Mid-November – mid-April the lookout is only accessible by walking, skiing, snowshoeing, or snowmobiling the 1. Keep reading
5 miles up the road, depending on snow level it can be hazardous to travel to the lookout. The route to the lookout follows FS Road 5310 and is 1.5 miles long with 945 feet of elevation gain. The starting elevation is about 1300' and the ending elevation is about 2600'. The road averages 8-12' wide and becomes more narrow as snow accumulates. There is an average grade of 10% with a maximum grade of 25%. In Winter, up to 4+ feet of snow can accumulate on the road and surrounding area depending on the year. Recent upgrades to the building will make your stay comfortable, but are still primitive, guests should be prepared with their own supplies. If you are visiting Steliko during the Winter please read this document: Additional Winter Info Recreation Nearby roads and the Steliko Ridge trail offer opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, and dirt biking. Although you may still see the light of nearby houses from the top, the star gazing is still very good. A short drive up valley leads to other recreation sites like Silver Falls, Entiat Falls and many trails. Always check conditions before embarking on your next adventure.
Facilities
The 16x16 cabin sleeps four and is equipped with four single foam mattresses, two on regular frames and two on trundle style frames. Two foldable tables, a bench with a two-burner propane stove, a heater, and broom and dustpan are provided. There is a wall-mounted propane heater for guest use. There are instructions on how to use this heater inside the lookout. We cannot guarantee that visitors will be able to start the propane heater. Experienced users of this specific propane heater can typically get it started within 5 minutes. It may take an inexperienced user up to 30 minutes or more to get the heater started if at all. As such, visitors should be prepared to stay at the lookout without facility-provided heat. Here are the instructions for the heater and backup heater: Instructions There is a Little Buddy heater as a backup to the main heater. If you would like to use this backup heater, please bring your own 1lb. Propane Canister . Bring 3-4 one-pound canisters for 24 hours of use. There are special vents to the outside of the building these must be kept open at all times. There are solar-powered LED strip lights and a USB plug for devices. The solar power may not be powerful to charge the system during late November - February. We recommend brining additional battery-powered lights. Guests must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing. Guests must also bring their own cookware, dishes, bedding, first aid supplies, trash bags, entertainment and 10 essentials. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located 40 yards from the lookout. Bring extra toilet paper. A picnic table is outside the lookout. Winter Visitor Information: Additional Winter Info Natural Features Views from the lookout include Tyee Mountain, Stormy Mountain and east to the Waterville Plateau. The open hillsides are covered with balsam root and Lupine in the spring and guests can usually spot a mule deer or two as this is great winter range. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (509) 860-4267.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous forest roads are adjacent to the lookout and ready to be explored by bike, dirt bike, foot or truck. The Steliko Ridge trail is also adjacent to the lookout and is open to dirt bikes, mountain bikes, horses and hikers. This trail travles for approximately four miles out the ridge to the north.
What the agency tells you
- Entry to the cabin is by key. The key is in a lock box on the lookout. The combination to the lockbox is provided in the reservation confirmation letter. - From mid-November through mid-April the road up to the lookout is closed by gate. The lookout is accessible by walking, skiing, snowshoeing, or snowmobiling the 1.5 miles up the road. - No pets or any animals are allowed in the facility. - No smoking in or around the lookout. - No campfires. - No tent, trailer, or RV camping at the site. - Most lookouts have occasional visits from Forest Service employees or members of the public; these people may be using the outhouse or looking at the views from the peak or Lookout Stairway. - The lookout is managed under a GT permit by the non-profit TREAD and Discover Entiat. Guests can reach out to Discover Entiat at 509-860-4267 with any questions about the Lookout, conditions, etc. You can also email contact@tread-cw.com with questions, comments, and concerns about the lookout. - This is a pack-it-out facility, guests must pack out all trash and clean the cabin before departure by wiping down all surfaces (wipes and/or paper towels provided) and sweeping the floor. Guests are welcome to use the dumpster at the Entiat Ranger District for their garbage. - Guests must close all windows and doors and lock the lookout upon departure. - The lookout is equipped with vented windows, please leave the vents open (they are labeled). - Steliko Lookout has a minimum 2-night stay on the weekends (Fri-Sunday), but is available for single nights Monday – Thursday. - There is no water at the lookout. - Although not super high, a fall from the lookout would hurt and potentially kill, please use care at all times, especially when windy. If you bring your children, please make sure they are not climbing on the railing. - Learn more about the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest at https://www.fs.usda.gov/okawen/
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and 10 essentials. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located 40 yards from the lookout. Bring extra…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…battery-powered lights. Guests must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing. Guests must also…”
Around the campground
- Birding
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 15:27 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:27 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.
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 15:27 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.
| Steliko Lookout | Steliko Lookout | lookout | 4,153 ft | 126 ft | $95 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pine Flats Group CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 4.0 mi
Tyee LookoutWenatchee National Forest · 10 miWindy Camp CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 11 mi
Fox Creek CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 15 miSnowberry Bowl CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 15 mi
Lake Creek Campground - Entiat RiverWenatchee National Forest · 16 miFrom Entiat, travel 10.3 miles west on the Entiat River Road, also known as County Road 19. Turn right on NF road 5310, drive past the forest service buildings and continue up the road (use four-wheel drive) for 1.5 miles, stay straight on the 5310-110 at the 5310/5310-110 junction. Follow the 5310-110 to the lookout.
Please note: Mid-November through mid-April the last 1.5 miles of the road is closed. The lookout is accessible by walking, skiing, snowshoeing, or snowmobiling the 1.5 miles up the road during this time.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Entiat, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 16°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Steliko Lookout is in Washington’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Kim Schrier (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 moneyKim SchrierU.S. Representative · Washington’s 8th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
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 Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington
Dear Kim Schrier, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 8th district. I tried to camp at Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Steliko 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. Steliko Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steliko 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 Steliko Lookout (Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington) 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 Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Steliko 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. Steliko Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steliko 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 Steliko Lookout (Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington) 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 Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Steliko Lookout, Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Steliko 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. Steliko Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steliko 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 Steliko Lookout (Spokane Wenatchee Field Office, Washington) via campanac.com