Castle Butte Lookout

Propane is disconnected while they fix it, so bring your own stove. Not sure about heat while it's disconnected, it was warm when we went up there. Tacoma made it to the base the steps. A few mouse droppings spotted, but otherwise no sign of mice.

An incredible place! The lookout tower was well maintained and the bathroom was brand new and well stocked. The road up there is tough but a solid high clearance vehicle should be just fine. Saw a pair of American Kestrels around the peak every day.

We did a roadtrip visiting and stay in 7 different fire lookouts 7 days in a row, bringing our cat along with us. If you want more information about that, find me on YouTube @JoelKalich.

Location and Access:
This instructions here on recreation.gov to get to this lookout are WRONG if you're coming from highway 12. You should turn off of highway 12 onto the 107 (not the 108), continue for 8.6 mi, make the tightest left onto the Lolo Trail, continue 8.5 mi, finally turning left at the 561 to head 1.6 mi up to the lookout. I called to confirm that this is the best way to access it. The roads were in excellent shape with frequent drainage cuts up to the 561, the last 1.6 mi, which was quite rough. Check out the video on YouTube to see what you can expect. My lifted Volvo XC70 handled everything no problem. I'd say a stock Subaru outback could make it up to the base of the lookout, but driving the last 300-ish feet directly up to the lookout itself requires a more serious high clearance vehicle. You could just park at the base and hoof it up to the lookout itself if you want, avoiding that section entirely.

The lookout:
We had no issues getting into the lookout, the code worked well. It was clean and ready to use, though one of the most dilapidated structures on our journey. It was rural enough that we were not bothered by any visitors on the Thursday night when we visited. The beds are both slanted and we were unable to make them level. There isn't really a good table to play cards at, but we made do. The sink and stove didn't seem to work, which is fine, but was a bit annoying that they were taking up so much space within the lookout if they aren't operational. The toilet was downhill a bit, but not the worst we experienced on the journey. The toilet itself was brand new (I don't think I've ever been this early to a pit toilet) and well stocked with TP for us. Views were, of course, spectacular, though slightly dampened by smoke unfortunately.

cook stove, didnt work. Heater, didnt work. No cots as listed in materials provided.

The views were amazing. We had a handful of visitors during the day. Clear view of the Milky Way. The 500 road is horrendous need 4 wheel drive and high clearance to pass it. Heard that the Forest is planning on fixing the road at the end of this year though.

Amazing views, the lookout was cozy. We hiked into Bald Mountain lake and fished and picked huckleberries. We also went to Rocky Ridge lake. Next trip we want to go to Horseshoe lake and Indian post office lakes.

Once we got there it was amazing. However, we came up Forest Rd 568 to drive the Lolo Motorway and that turned out to be a bad idea. It was in terrible shape east-west on 500. Took us over 6 hours on that route to get to the lookout once we left hardball. 107 was fine on the way out. Everything on FR 500 including the shortest route to Castle Butte is really really really bad. We had a 4WD truck with high wheel clearance, partially deflated the tires and we really thought we might be hiking out. We made it, but I won't do that again.

The Good
Everything other than what I mention below. The views were great, the cabin was well stocked, etc.

The two complaints I have (and one is not due to the cabin) are,
The road in is in very bad shape. I rode this years ago but it is very rough now, even for 4wd.
My only complaint with the cabin was the propane stove and light. It had such a bad leak when turned on it was unusable. Besides the smell, the safety factor made it unusable. Luckily we had another way to heat food and lamps. Other than that, a fun experience that I highly recommend. Did I mention the 5am views?