Clearwater Lookout Site

If you loved the ocean, this location between the Clearwater River and Kalaloch was just 3 miles from the beach.

In 1961, the Clearwater Lookout was built. It was a 40-foot wooden tower with a DNR live-in cab on top. The lookout construction work was performed by the DNR carpentry crew. Clearwater was first staffed this year by Janice McDowell. She was shifted from a lookout on the Quinault Indian Reservation to the east. Later in the season it seems Mildred Drazkowski took the station, moved over from Skidder Hill.

In 1962, the lookout was again Mildred Drazkowski.

In 1963, the lookout was Beth Barlow Velie. Here are some things she shared. I moved to a new lookout between the Hoh and Clearwater Rivers, Clearwater L.O. My husband worked for DNR in Olympia during the week and he joined me on the lookout on weekends. Clearwater L.O. was located off the Clearwater Mainline. It was off a logging road at that time, and the Honor Camp had not yet been built. The lookout building was virtually identical to the one at Octopus. Clearwater L.O. had a lot more fog days than Octopus as it was not that far from the ocean. Many times, as I looked out I was only able to see high hill tops with fog below. I had a gray shorthaired kitten named Cat Ballue. He lived with me for the summer and then went to a home in Forks.

From 1964 to 1966, the lookout was Margaret Flora. (maybe longer)

In 1969, the lookout was destroyed.

"About 4 p.m. last Thursday a cable whipped through a pile of cedar slash at a logging camp on the North Fork of the Raft River on the Olympic Peninsula. Friction from the cable – known to loggers as a strawline and used to haul heavier rigging about – ignited the tinder dry wood. Ten miles to the north, at the Clearwater Lookout Station of the State Department of Natural Resources, a lookout spotted smoke. He notified E.C. Gockerell, the departments field supervisor, who reached the scene in about a half an hour. At that time, Gockerell reported, the fire had covered about 20 acres, and wind-borne embers were spreading it. By Tuesday morning, the Raft River fire had spread to approximately 6,000 acres, making it the worst in state protected timber since a 14,000 acre blaze in Clark and Skamania counties in 1952."

Clearwater Lookout Site & Clearwater South

The Kresek Lookout Inventory shows a Clearwater South location at 705 feet in the section witht he benchmark that is 705 feet. His research says unknown, emergency lookout. I visited the benchmarked area but a recent pre-commercial thinning of the young trees left far too much covering the ground to find anything. I believe Irene Potter visited this benchmark location in 2000. Her photos are at the bottom of the page. Some wood was found, maybe from a lookout station, or likely from a survey stand...it looks too fresh.

A permit is required to hike here from the private timber company that owns the land. Rayonier Timber sold the land in 2016 to Bavarian Timber LLC being managed by American Forest Management. Permits are still sold with key but they are not cheap. Access from Highway 101 through the Olympic National Park strip is a straightforward road with no gates at first.