Black Mountain FIre Lookout

BIGHORN NATIONAL FOREST
DAYTON - WYOMING

Hot off the hike up to Harney Peak in the Black Hills we were a confident bunch and decided to tackle another hike. This time our nemesis was the Black Mountain Fire Lookout in the northern section of the Bighorn National Forest in the Bighorn Mountains. We've done some close to four wheeling with our conversion van and this trip would be no different. The van shows its scars and we were going to do our best to keep that from happening here in WYO.

Heading up forest road 16 off of US 16 things quickly turn topsy turvy and slightly washboard. Take your time and enjoy the bouncing. Not having ever been down this road and not having ever taken this hike we were wondering how close we were going to get our van.

At a couple points along the way the ruts just kept getting bigger yet the desire to turn around or pull off and hike the rest of the way just didnt happen. I did get out and snap some pictures of the obstacles in our path. Gotta love when you can take a conversion down a road like this. Our van doesnt have the highest clearance either.

Time to cross a creek that crosses right thru the road. No problem. If I had not done this already in the Superior National Forest back home I probably would not have taken on the challenge.

The time had come to park the vehicle and get on foot. There was no way we were going to be able to have the van keep up with these four wheelers. This picture was actually taken on the way back from the fire tower. The trail must be approved for offroad vehicles. 

As the trail began to climb higher we realized we must be getting close to coming to an end. The Bighorns are filled with lots of lodgepole pines throughout. 

I'm no scat expert. I do wonder when I see it what it came from. This stuff looked awfully hairy. I thought I would take a picture and have others weigh in who know more than I do.

Looking up we finally could see our goal and I can only imagine the extent of its past use.

A fully functional outhouse sits at the base of the final climb. Fully functional because it was used by our party. Fully functional means it comes complete with toilet paper or at least it did on our pass thru this way.

This is the final push. If ever a picture looks like it was staged this would qualify as one of those.

This fire tower was definitely built upon some solid rock. Right in the vicinity around the tower we actually found a geocache. We stumbled on it and did not use our gps.

Two stories of fire lookout. No guided tours this day as the door was locked.

Black Mountain Fire Lookout provides some beautiful views of the surrounding area with an elevation of 9,500ft.

This is the view of the outhouse from the fire lookout.

Solar panels and that can only mean this modern upgrade means something is still in use up there. Every mountain range has its unique flavor and the Bighorns give up views like this all over the northern half of the range. The southern half definitely has a much different personality and topography.

This is a job that I could get into. I'm pretty sure that with the advent of satellites we will never be going back to using them for such a purpose again. I have heard that other National Forests are renting these out to the public for use as an overnight cabin. Sounds like a great idea to me. I even hear the Bighorns will probably be moving towards just that thing in the near future.