Basin Lookout Site

Spada Lake was formed inside the Sultan Basin. The Basin Lookout is positioned to only view the basin and the slopes rising from the basin. In 1961, a temporary 12-foot wooden DNR tower was built with a small trailer for the lookout observer to live in. This lookout was built in order to cover the logging and dam building of the Spada Reservoir. In 1961 the Culmback dam was built and all the timber up the valley was cut where the reservoir would occupy. From the lookout site, there is a clear view down to the dam and the entire Sultan Basin. Prior to this lookout, there was no coverage of this area. The nearby Blue Mountain Lookout on a nearby ridge faced the other direction and had no coverage of Sultan Basin. From 1961 to 1963 the lookout was Glory (unknown). She may have continued the next few years. In 1962, a massive windstorm on October 11 took the roof and then the remaining tower over the ridge. The storm also dropped all the mature timber on the mountain. This would explain the old lookout parts being so far down the hillside that we find today. She slept that night in the trailer fully clothed with a rain jacket on expecting the trailer to tip over on its side. It might explain the lookout inventory showing a 12-foot tower but she described it as an 8 foot tower (the second could have been shorter). It is also not clear but I think Glory says that she was in the trailer at the end of the road, 400 feet below the tower. It is also unclear about the an old ground cabin she describes when she first started in 1961. By 1966, the lookout was gone.

From Sultan, take the Sultan Basin Road to its end at Olney Pass. This is the end of the county road and where it is gated for winter. The county usually plows the road to the pass and then down to Culmback Dam. If the gate is open at Olney Pass, drive down to the dam and park. When the gate opens each year is a bit of a mystery.

Walk across the dam and follow the road uphill, then winding through some forested drainages. Use the map provided. At a sharp turn, just as the roadway is going downhill, there is an old road hiding to the left. The trail on the old road is very faint at first, sometimes off to the side of the road to avoid brush and fallen trees. Going in winter the tread should be more obvious before the brush grows leaves. Follow this trail/roadbed east for a half mile or so. The old road gets more defined higher and eventually the old road hits the boundary between Everett PUD and the DNR. Reaching the State DNR lands, you will enter a clear-cut and hit a major gravel road. Look up to the forested knob on the ridge and that is the lookout site. Just follow the road up to the base, take a short spur right below the knob and climb the ridgeline up via a super steep dozer trail. At the top of the forested knob is a flat area where the tower was. To see the tower remnants, look over the north side and the debris are scattered down the hillside.