Delilah Lookout is Closed for 2024
Check back next spring for 2025 opening date.
Elevation 5,092 feet / 1552 meters
Sequoia National Forest
California, USA
DMS 36˚ 48′ 15.02″, -119˚ 7′ 3.13″
UTM 36.8041141, -119.1187255
Township 13 south, Range 26 east, Section 11
What to Know Before You Go
Delilah Lookout is open daily to the public from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm during fire season, but may be closed at any time without notice due to fire activity, adverse weather conditions, or other situations as needed.
Access to the lookout is by a rocky dirt road – a high clearance vehicle is recommended. 4 wheel drive is helpful but not required.
There is no public camping, shooting, or hunting on the site.
Delilah is normally staffed 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week. The lookout is used as both work place and residence for the firewatcher on duty.
A picnic table and a rustic outhouse are available. There is no water available on site and no garbage service. Please – take your trash with you.
Weather conditions near Delilah Lookout:
About Delilah Lookout
Delilah Lookout is located on Pine Ridge in the northern most portion of the Sequoia National Forest, on the Hume Lake Ranger District. It’s location on the edge of a narrow ridge gives it dramatic views of the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests, Kings Canyon National Park and the lower Kings River watershed as it flows into Pine Flat Reservoir.
Delilah was established in 1916 as a site for fire detection and may have had several incarnations before the current structure. What is thought to be the first was a small 7′ x 7’ observation cab perched on a metal tower with access to the top via a ladder that clung to the side of the tower. Firewatchers lived in a cabin at the base of the tower. In 1960, the observation-only lookout was replaced with a very unique fire lookout – a spacious 15′ x 15’, 67’ tall decommissioned air traffic control tower, flown in from Lemoore Naval Air Station and reconstructed at its current location.
Funded by both the Forest Service and the State of California, Delilah was staffed every fire season until 1999 when it was closed permanently, used only briefly during local fires in 2001 and 2002.
Through a partnership between the Buck Rock Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service, Delilah reopened in 2005 and continues to be staffed every fire season by Buck Rock Foundation volunteers.
The lookout was directly threatened by the Rough Fire in 2015, but was saved when firefighters successfully stopped the westward progress of the fire directly along the ridge where Delilah is perched.
