Lookout and Trail Maintenance • Three Fingers Lookout

Description: A lookout restored by the Everett Branch of the Mountaineers is on the southern summit (6,850') of Three Fingers.

Directions: Drive the Mountain Loop Highway 6.5 miles east from Granite Falls. Turn left onto FS 41. Follow signs to trail head approximately 18 miles from Road, elevation 2,800'.

Route: The maintained trail ends at Tin Can Gap. After that a cross-country scrambling route continues to the Lookout. This portion of the route requires ice-axe and other scrambling skills. The final portion of the route is very airy and one gains the lookout by a series of ladders that feel like they will shake loose and fall onto the Queest-Alb Glacier several hundred feet below. If you are lucky, your body will not fall into the crevasses in the glacier.

Reference: cf. Goat Flats in 100 Hikes in the Glacier Peak Region, Ira Spring & Harvey Manning, The Mountaineers Press, p. 86, 1988.

Maps: A progression of USGS and USFS maps show the historical development around the lookout. Colors have been used to highlight select, man-made features of interest. Blue = items spanning the years. Lime green = items missing in later years. Red = items appearing in later years. Brown = trails or railroads that become roads (after a fashion). The coloring is by no means comprehensive. By some bizarre coincidence the old and new Forest Service maps were at the same scale and thus could be superimposed to create a composite.

A composite of USFS Mt.Baker-Snoqualamie National Forest maps, 1962 and 1989.

The USGS Stilaguamish, 30', 1899 map does not show any lookouts (Mt. Pilchuck, Three Fingers, Higgins, or French Creek) and the only trail near Three Fingers goes to Windy Pass. Note the older spelling of Stillaguamish. The Northern Pacific Railroad, Monte Cristo spur can be seen in the valley. There is no road up the South Fork of the Stillaguamish. There is at least one more long abandoned trail shown on the map. Are there others?

The USGS Stillaguamish, 30', 1946 map is not much different than the 1899 map. There is no lookout.

The USGS Silverton, 15', 1957 map shows the Three Fingers Lookout but no trail! Gone is the railroad and the Mountain Loop Highway runs up the South Fork of the Stillaguamish. Logging roads appear to the south of the river. The trails up Wiley Creek and Eldred Creek may not currently exist. The trail running south from Sunnyside Camp may now be a road. The other trails appear to exist today but some have been shortened by roads.

The USGS Whitehorse and Meadow Mountain, 7.5', 1989 maps were combined to show the trail-route to Three Fingers. Past the maintained trail (solid line), dashed lines represent the very approximate route to the Lookout based on eight-year old memory. Send your latest GPS tracking map to the webmaster.

History: First article in Newsletter on repair efforts appeared September, 1986.

Images: Three Fingers Photos

Activity: LOTM does yearly maintenance on the Lookout.