Cliff Hanger
Volunteers are high on maintaining the Mallard Peak lookout.
The Spokesman-Review
Perched at 6,870 feet on the divide between Idaho’s Clearwater and St. Joe rivers, the Mallard Peak lookout has rarely been unoccupied since it was last staffed by Forest Service fire monitors in 1957.
See all photos of the lookout and volunteers
Critters are year-round guests and humans trickle into the site weekly during the summer and autumn when snow doesn’t clog the trail.
The lookout’s logbooks are filled with more than 50 years of tales from backcountry travelers who’ve taken advantage of a free 14-by-14-foot room with a view.
They tell of night skies streaked by meteor showers and terrorized by lightning. Entries recount morning greetings from mountain goats and midnight raids by mice, of cozy evenings by the oil lamp and chilling ordeals without enough dry wood for the small stove.
Bear, deer and elk sightings are regularly recorded along with fishing exploits at nearby Heart, Skyland and Northbound lakes.
Visitors have been thrilled by the chirps of pikas in the talus slopes below the lookout and not-so-thrilled by the seasonal lady bug infestations inside the 80-year-old shelter.
