cabinporn:

At 8,846 feet (2,696 metres), the Tahquitz Peak Lookout is the highest lookout in the San Bernardino National Forest, and one of the highest in the United States. Built entirely by hand, as power tools are prohibited in the San Jacinto Wilderness, this working Lookout Tower has been in operation for 77 years.

For the most part Fire Lookout Towers are a relic of the past, a pre-radio, pre-satellite necessity. With as many as 8,000 lookout towers found across every state in the United States (except Kansas). There are fewer than 2,000 towers left, the majority of which are scattered across the vast mountainous forests of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Volunteer Park Rangers still take up residency of many of these isolated cabins, keeping a watchful eye out for smoke from their panoramic perch.

Submitted by Ian James