Sourdough Mountain Lookout, fire lookout

Sourdough Mountain Lookout is a 14.25 ft (4.34 m) square fire lookout built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933 atop a rock foundation on Sourdough Mountain in North Cascades National Park, Whatcom County. Its walls are shiplap siding under a wood-shingled hip roof, and diagonally braced plywood shutters swing open for observation in each direction. It replaced a 1917 lookout torn down for the new cabin.

A first lookout was erected on the summit in 1917 and torn down when the Civilian Conservation Corps built the present cabin in 1933. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1989. In August 2023 it was wrapped in fire-proof material to protect it from the nearby Sourdough Fire.

The lookout is linked to poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, who worked here as fire lookouts in the 1950s. Snyder's 1953 season produced "Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout"; after he was blacklisted, Whalen took the post and wrote "Sourdough Mountain Lookout". Visitors can read these poems alongside the cabin where they were written.

The hike from the trailhead to the cabin is 5 mi (8.0 km) one way. The lookout is no longer staffed on a regular basis but is visited with some frequency by hikers. Plan for a steep, sustained climb and allow time to descend before dark.

Poet Gary Snyder spent the summer of 1953 working as a fire lookout at this station and wrote poems capturing his mountain solitude. His time here inspired works that connected wilderness experience with contemporary poetry, drawing literary pilgrims to the site.