Buck Rock
Walk Review
Cassie and I walked to the base of Buck Rock, where Cassie found a spot to paint Buck Rock and its famous lookout, while I walked to the top and got to talk to the volunteer manning the Buck Rock Lookout.
The trail itself is a short one, with the parking lot about a quarter mile away from Buck Rock. From the base of Buck Rock, the lookout sits 300 ft above it, so by the time I got to the top, I was sweating profusely. The trail is composed mostly of sandy, loose dirt. The walk up to the lookout has loose rocks, but is mostly made up of solid wooden stairs. Those wooden stairs gave me more confidence than what I felt, as there was a lot of empty space beneath some of the steps. But I just focused on getting one foot in front of the other to make it up.
The bathroom at the base of the lookout is one of the cleanest port-a-potties I’ve ever used. It even has books in it!
The trail to get there (Buck Rock Road) was an easy dirt fire road that any car could do. There were a few spots where high clearance would make the ride easier, but I spotted an unmodified Toyota Camry at the parking lot. Speaking of the parking lot, there was space for about 8 cars.
Just a warning, unless one wants to test their off-roading prowess, one must avoid taking Rabbit Meadow Road to the lookout as this trail requires 4x4 and off-roading skills.
At the base of the lookout, there was a pop-up tent run by the Buck Rock Foundation selling merch to help the foundation run this and two other lookout towers nearby. They were not able to process credit cards, but the volunteers at the top of the watchtower could, so I ended up buying a few things at the top of the tower.
What I Learned
I chatted a bit with the volunteers, and I learned that the Buck Rock Foundation trains volunteers to spot fires, preserve the lookouts, and inform the visiting public about the history of the lookouts. Actually, when I visited the tower, they were following a rescue operation that was taking place in the northwestern part of the park where a car had apparently fallen off a road with a large drop. They were too far away to help, but they still kept track in case they could help relay information.
The lookout tower was well provisioned, with a microwave, fridge, stove, and a twin-size bed. I asked the volunteer what she ate up there, expecting her to reply with recipes for various dehydrated meals. Instead, she stated that she did not eat any dehydrated foods—in fact, they were going to start cooking pizza in the oven after the visitors left.
The volunteers also let me know that if one was interested in volunteering, they should check out the website as they’re always looking for more volunteers to staff the towers during fire season.
This was my first time at a fire lookout (virtually, I had played the Firewatch video game a few years ago), and the commanding 360-degree view of the surrounding area was unsurprising. I was given an impromptu lesson on how to use the Osborne Fire Finder to find the distance and elevation difference to a fire, if one were to find one.
What Happened?
.9 miles, 1 hr 21 mins, 280 ft of ascent (Buck Rock Foundation says the tower alone is 300 ft, so my watch is under counting here)
I had wanted to visit this fire lookout when I found out about it a few years ago, but there were closures due to COVID, and last year, I was busy falling in love with a special lady.
On this weekend, I finally prioritized visiting this lookout and we drove there right after checking out the Grant Grove Village. The drive itself would have been short, but we stopped a few miles into Buck Rock Road and ate lunch at a future camping spot. After a delicious meal of spicy mixed noodles, we got back on the road and ran into a bit of traffic. For about 5 minutes, we trailed behind an excavator tractor until they found a big enough pullout to let us through.
At the parking lot, Cassie grabbed her watercolor kit while I grabbed my camera and we headed to the lookout. The lookout was far cooler than I thought it’d be—it looked like something right out of a James Bond movie. We made our way down to the popup tent and chatted with the volunteers before separating—I headed to the lookout while Cassie made her way to a rock to paint the lookout.
I had a tough time with the stairs to the lookout. With my fear of heights fully activated and stairs being stairs, my heart rate shot up to 156 and I felt nauseous. So, I took quick rests at every turn in the stairs and got my shit together. I told myself that the rickety-looking stairs were anything but that—the slats did not bow and there were steel bits to reinforce it. Furthermore, the stairs did not sway with my weight and were as solid as they could be. Now, I’m not sure if all of that was actually true, but that’s what I told myself. Eventually, by purely focusing on the mechanics of putting one foot in front of the other, I somehow found myself at the top of the tower, where I quickly ducked into the lookout as I felt that would help me calm down.
And it did.
I didn’t mean to, but I ended up chatting with the wonderful volunteers for at least 30 minutes. I received wonderful instructions on how the fire lookout worked, what its amenities were, how one could volunteer for it, and how tiring the stairs were for the volunteers, even though they had climbed them dozens of times.
When I said my goodbyes, I was calm enough to walk on the catwalk outside of the lookout and checked out the wonderful views of mountains, canyons, valleys, and, of course, trees.
The walk down was a whole lot easier, as each step brought me closer to salvation than damnation. Unlike going up, I was convinced that the stairs were as solid as rock and the stairs never creaked, not even once.
At the bottom, I didn’t kiss the ground, but I did quickly find Cassie painting Buck Rock. She wasn’t too happy with the iteration she was working on, so we packed up and hiked back to Ramona. We then drove through Buck Rock Road and on to Sequoia National Park.