Hirz Mountain Lookout

The views made this trip so worth it! Amazing 360 views of the river and mountains!! The off-roading is no joke! AWD/4x4 is a must! Plan to pack lightly!! The .25mile ~700ft elevation hike is very tough while trying to carry a lot of gear! Plan to bring an extra lock, to lock the hatch at the top of the stairs. Didn’t see much wild life, but there were some pesky wasps. One of the hatches on the windows in the lookout is broken, so it is stuck open. Really enjoyed my stay here!! hope to be back in the future!

What an amazing experience. The four nights in my opinion are the ONLY way to experience this tower. Especially with that hike up, worth it to carry up your stuff and settle in for a longer lovely time. I traveled to Hirz as a solo female traveler and found it very peaceful and safe. I did have a full flat tire my departing morning (due to tire age+ripping the roads combo) and luckily the flat landing parking area there at the base of the hike made it a simple swap.

If you are uncomfortable with wasps please be aware they are really present here, but were all friendly to me - despite annoying. One nearly crawled into my mouth while eating and I drank a dead one in my morning coffee on accident! Wild.

WHAT TO BRING: I would suggest bringing a combo cable lock (like a bike lock) for the cat walk as traditional u-shaped locks will prove difficult to lock upon leaving the tower to go explore. Binoculars to spy the water skiers at the base of the mountain. And a quality bluetooth speaker to blast the Dune OST.

The tower was excellent and the views were beautiful! bring binoculars!

The road is really intense. It took us >60mins to travel 5 miles, and we had to repeatedly get out to move rocks that we thought might damage our car. You definitely need an AWD in at least 2 places because of bits of the road being washed out. The more clearance and ruggedness your car, the greater peace of mind you'll have.

Advice for the tower
- There are two cots in the tower, so bring 2 more if you are sleeping 4.
- The walk from the car to the tower is steep and strenuous and you'll arrive at the tower sweaty and tired. The less stuff you bring the better.
- There is no lock on the tower, so bring a bike cable lock if you want to lock it whilst you are out.
- There is cell phone service.
- There is a good picnic table outside.
- The drop toilet is good.
- There aren't hiking trails, we walked along the road in the day time to amuse ourselves.
- Wasps will harass you whilst eating/cooking outside.
- You may encounter (or hear) deer hunters.

The tower was lovingly restored by Historicorps. I am going to look into volunteering with them.

I was unable to get to the Lookout. I knew the road would be in bad shape but because of the roads were also very steep it was too risky to traverse. I've been able to drive many other road with similar descriptions on rec.gov, so be careful out there! If you get stuck, there's no service. Also, there should be a warning about the Google maps location (which will lead you astray if you're dumb enough like me to follow it). Beautiful area ! Hope to go back if I can ever rent a jeep.

Hirz Mountain Lookout was one of the more unique camping/hiking experiences I’ve had. The views from the top are absolutely beautiful, especially during sunset, and the stargazing at night was incredible with very little light pollution. The lookout tower itself is really cool and made for an unforgettable overnight experience.

That said, the hike up is no joke. It’s steep, rocky, and pretty brutal in the spring/summer heat. We decided not to haul all of our gear up because of how difficult the climb was. Definitely pack light and bring plenty of water. It also gets extremely windy at night, so be prepared for that.

One thing that surprised me was how well Verizon cell service worked at the top. Overall, it was a very unique and memorable experience, but I personally wouldn’t recommend it for an extended stay due to the challenging hike and exposure to the elements.

1.5hrs drive from Burney Falls, which was spectacular.

Bring your own cable lock to secure the lookout if you leave. We found a group of people trying to cut through the lock to break into the lookout when we returned on one of the evenings.

Absolutely beautiful!
The dirt road took me 22min, but a more cautious driver would take longer for sure
Definitely wouldn’t want to make the drive without 4WD
The sunset was perfect
Wasps were annoying, but since we arrived at 7pm they were only out for around 30min. We ate dinner after sunset so they didn’t bother us then.
Make sure you bring toilet paper, headlamps, a lantern, bed sheets, and a trash bag
Blankets are probably better than a sleeping bag because it’s so hot at night
Bringing your things up in backpacking backpack is super helpful, the walk would have been rough without that