I had a horrible experience with this booking. The lock combination code was never provided!! I could not get into the lookout. It is a 5 hour drive from Missoula to get there. I called every ranger station on the entire Idaho Panhandle National Forest both ahead of the reservation and in the days following and not a single person has answered the phone or gotten back to me. I spent over 3 combined hours on hold with representatives from Recreation.gov and they said that it was the responsibility of the local Forest Service employees to have provided the combination lock code in the "Reservation Details" portion of the standard confirmation email but they failed to do so. Also there was never provided an after-hours/ personal contact of a forest service employee to either the renter (myself) or recreation.gov booking system as many other Ranger Districts for the cabins and lookouts often do to address problems exactly like this one. I read through all the reviews for Surveyors Lookout and two other visitors from this Summer alone had the same experience. The recreation.gov representative stated that although they cannot handle the refund, that I should expect to get a full refund from the local forest service employees who have the authority to do so. That's still to be determined. I personally was on staff with the Forest Service for some years years including being on the Region 1 Historic Preservation Crew working on these same rental cabins for the public to use. I've rented many lookouts and cabins over the years and this is the first time I've ever had an experience like this. Hopefully it will never happen again.

Have stayed at most regional lookouts. This was the 3rd trip to Surveyors. It’s evident that the billionaire’s boys club would rather guild something else in DC than maintain these treasures.

Had a wonderful time, stars were amazing and the views are awesome. We brought our own inflatable mattress, which I highly recommend. Propane lanterns in the lookout don't provide much light so I would bring another source of light. Tower was very clean upon arrival and we made sure to leave it the same way, housekeeping is minimal :)