Today’s adventure was to hike to the top to the controversial fire lookout to check it out.  The peak sits at 2347 meters.  We parked at the trailhead (which has parking for about 5 vehicles) and there was a skiff of snow.  It wasn’t too long till we reached a few inches of snow.  Two hikers had gone in ahead just shortly before us so we easily followed their tracks and caught up to them about 3/4 of the way up.  We continued along, now breaking trail, up the ridge to the lookout.  At this point, the snow was almost a foot deep.  The final push to the top is a rocky scramble which proved to be quite difficult with the added snow on it.  We cautiously made it up to the top.  It was foggy and windy but rewarding to be able to get inside the fire lookout and relax out of the elements.  The fog blew in and out and we were able to get a few good views of the valley around.  Shannon was dreading the trek back down the rocky scramble.  As we got part way down we noticed some flagging tape to the right so decided to follow that path as it wasn’t a straight drop off a cliff like the trail to the left which we had just come up.  We made it down without any problems and enjoyed the snow for the short time we were in it.  The hike to the peak took us around 3.5 hours but, as we state, the rocky scramble was quite technical near the top.  All in all a fantastic hike with a rewarding gem at the top.

Look and read a bit more about this historic fire lookout and its controversies at:

Eagle Pass Mountain Fire Lookout