Snoqualmie Fire Lookouts Association

03/30/2026

SFLA is starting to gear up for another summer season at the lookouts.
And we are looking for willing recruits to help stand duty! Consider joining us if you aren't already a member!

The Snoqualmie Fire Lookouts Association (SFLA) is dedicated to the support the restoration, maintenance, upkeep and continued operation of Forest Fire Lookouts, Suntop, Kelly Butte and Granite Mountain in the Snoqualmie Ranger District as operational and in-service fire lookouts.

03/30/2026

Great article on fire lookouts in Montana... very applicable to the fire lookouts we care for!

Mid-morning light made soft by wildfire smoke filters through the pine boughs in the Whitefish Range. Leif Haugen, Northwest Montana’s longest serving fire lookout, ventures out for drinking water ahead of the hottest part of the August day. He walks about a mile and a half down to a mossy stream ...

10/13/2025

SFLA just wrapped up the 2025 fire season and we have a lot to be proud of:

479 volunteer-days
4,112 hours of volunteer service
1,119 miles hiked
hosted almost 5,000 visitors at Suntop and nearly 1,500 visitors at Kelly Butte;
Spotted and reported a bunch of fires reported including two First Reports, and a bunch of abandoned campfires put out by our members
Did a WHOLE bunch of work on trails, including Palisades trail, John Muir nature trail, and Deep Creek
Lots of road miles patrolled
Two fire lookouts staffed for over 100 days of service each:

All by our 170 really dedicated volunteers.

We are proud that as we modeled ourselves after other Fire Lookout volunteer groups, other groups are noticing us and starting their own groups to preserve fire lookouts by staffing and making them operational again.
And the Forest Service is starting to notice that human staffed lookouts have a value in spotting fires AND interacting with the public!

A hearty "Well Done" to our members... and an invitation to serve again next year!

07/08/2025

Suntop and Kelly Butte Lookouts are currently in operation and staffed 7 days a week until October 5th. The lookout staffers are all volunteers, so there may be occasional, unscheduled days (that we can’t predict) where the lookout is closed. Visitors are welcome to come visit the cabin 8 am to 5 pm when the lookout is staffed.
Camping is not allowed at the lookouts themselves (including sleeping on the deck), but is available a short distance away, as well as at serviced Forest Service campgrounds at The Dalles and Silver Springs.

For Suntop: the gate below the lookout is open from 8 am to 8 pm (or sunset if earlier) when staffed and is the clearest indicator that the fire lookout is in operation. During busy weekends the gate may be closed when parking is full. A Northwest Forest Pass (or America the Beautiful Pass-- not a Discover Pass) is required to park at Suntop .

06/25/2025

Suntop and Kelly Butte lookouts are now in operational service for the summer. Hopefully it will be a quiet one. Come on up, visit the lookouts, meet the volunteer staffers, and let them explain the job of a fire lookout!

04/30/2025

Summer fire lookout season is coming and given snow conditions, it could be a hot one!! . If you are interested in joining check out our website www.snoqualmielookouts.org
We have two more opportunities for training before we set up the schedule for the summer!

04/06/2025

There was an earthquake this morning 1/4 mile from Kelly Butte! Only 3.7 on Richter scale, but hope the lookout is still standing!
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/uw62080827/executive

11/11/2024

That's a wrap for the summer 2024 season. We contributed 452 volunteer-days, for 3928 hours of volunteer service in FY24.

While our primary focus continues to be on helping to operate Suntop and Kelly Butte lookouts, contributing to repairs and maintenance to the lookouts and trails, and support the public, we did much more.
- Snow shoe, ski, trail, and road patrols: SFLA members helped patrol the forest during the season, conducting snow-shoe and ski patrols in winter, and trail patrols all year. Members hiked over 450 miles this year, talking to the public, picking up trash, reporting major problems, and performing minor trail repairs.
- Suntop and Kelly Butte operations: The lookouts were well staffed this summer and heavily visited. Suntop was open for operation for 99 days of 107 season days by closing on Oct 12th.
Kelly Butte was in service for 87 days out of 100 season days by closing on Oct 6th
- At Suntop we had a huge increase in visitors, having contact with more than 6,200 visitors, an increase of over 3,000 visitors over 2023. This was an average of 63 visitor contacts per day. Our peak day we hosted 315 visitors in one day. Despite not being quite ADA compliant, we had a number of visitors with disabilities visit the lookout, some in wheelchairs. The response from the public to the new facility was stunningly good.
- Kelly Butte was also busy, hosting 1,371 visitors to the lookout. Kelly was featured in a number of press and internet articles which contributed to the number of visitors.
- Volunteers spotted and reported a number of fires this season, including 4 fires that we believe were “first reports” based on PSICC input. One of the fires was reported by Zachary Pratt after he turned over duty at Kelly Butte and was on the road down when he encountered a fire started by fireworks. He had the phone number of PSICC in his phone, reported the fire, and then drove around the area to warn campers to prepare to evacuate.
- We did much more this year--our members became trained chain saw and crosscut saw operators, re-roofed the storage shed at Suntop, added rain barrels for collecting water at Suntop, added a solar radio re-charger at Kelly Butte, repainted sections of the outside of Kelly Butte, helped install and relocate wilderness toilets, and performed countless other little jobs that helped make the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest just a little bit better.
A big shout out to our volunteers and here's to even more in 2025!

08/10/2024

Happy 80th birthday to Smokey Bear! (well, just to note the ongoing debate over Smokey THE Bear or Smokey Bear... Let's just say that we all know the big bear in the ranger hat!

Get Your Smokey On: http://facebook.com/smokeybear http://smokeybear.com -Eddy Arnold plays guitar and sings "Smokey the Bear" for an old public service ann...

07/12/2024

Did you know that SFLA is not just all about lookouts? We do lots of different things to help the Forest U.S. Forest Service and Mt Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest - US Forest Service keep the forest in great shape. Yesterday 3 of us members did a trail patrol up to Summit Lake, a very popular destination in the Carbon River are just NW of Mt. Rainier. We started early and met and greeted 54 hikers and campers on the way up and down, worked to maintain the trail a bit (blocking shortcuts), then pitched in to clean out and destroy 8 illegal firepits (Summit Lake is a "no fires area" before returning to the trailhead. It was a glorious day in the woods, only marred by the firepits and the flat tire we got while driving down!

07/07/2024

Well, both Suntop and Kelly Butte lookouts are in service for the season! Lots of visitors already.
On June 29th we put Suntop and Kelly Butte into operation for the summer. And we are less than a week into the season and we've already spotted and reported TWO fires:
- Volunteers Stacey and Finn over at Suntop spotted a fire west of the lookout on top of Huckleberry Ridge last evening and reported it. Fire crews went up to the area and are investigating.
- Volunteer Zach turned over his shift at Kelly Butte and was driving down when he spotted a fire burning in a tree next to Forest Road 7030-- he warned nearby people to evacuate the area, then drove to a place he had cell phone service and reported the fire to Puget Sound. Turns out they had received 911 calls, but without good location, so he gets credit for a first GOOD report!