Few structures shaped the early Monongahela National Forest more than its fire towers. Scattered across ridgelines and rocky knobs from Tucker to Greenbrier, these steel-and-timber sentinels were the forest’s first line of defense in an era when wildfire threatened to undo everything federal foresters were working to rebuild. Today, most are gone. But the knobs they stood on remain, and with them, some of the most rewarding and least-visited views in the Mon Forest.
Not every site on this list offers an overlook or paved pull-offs. Several of these hikes require a little effort, a tolerance for tougher trails, and an appetite for history. But for the right visitor, that’s exactly the point.
At one point, there were nearly 100 lookout towers in the Mountain State. Of the 22 federally operated towers that once stood across the Monongahela, only three, Red Oak, Bickle, and Olson, remain accessible in their original locations. Perhaps the forest’s most iconic tower, Spruce Knob’s stone lookout, was actually constructed in 1969 for the public on the site of a former wooden fire tower. While some towers, including Rich Mountain and Mikes Knob, were moved and restored, the majority were decommissioned through the mid-twentieth century as aerial reconnaissance and, later, satellite and drone imaging made human lookouts mostly obsolete.
What was left at these former lookout sites is modest by conventional standards: a concrete foundation, a few anchor bolts, maybe a rusted length of rebar. But pair those remnants with a clear-day view across an unbroken ridge or dense and mossy second-growth spruce, and the isolation these lookouts once lived with starts to feel very real.
The hikes below are listed in order of length, from a quarter-mile boardwalk walk to a full six-mile out-and-back. Whether you’re making a quick stop along the Highland Scenic Highway or putting in a full day on some of the steepest terrain in the forest, there’s an entry point here for most hikers and a history worth knowing at each one.
Small as they are, these remnants are part of the Monongahela National Forest’s history and are protected as such. It is illegal to remove artifacts or materials from federal land. Please leave these sites as you found them so the next visitor can find them the same way. No camping is permitted along any of the trails listed below. However, there are plenty of developed and dispersed campsites nearby – see our interactive map for more info.
Canaan Mountain Tower Site
Archival Canaan Lookout Photo taken by E.S. Shipp in 1933. Photo Courtesy of National Archives
Present Day Canaan Mountain Tower Site
USFS sign near former site reminds visitors of wildfire danger.
Just outside of Davis, the rocky outcrop off the Canaan Loop Road is easy to drive past without realizing its significance. Pull into the small loop pulloff, and you’re standing on the site of the first fire lookout ever built by the Monongahela National Forest.
Constructed in 1924, the Canaan Mountain Lookout was not a steel tower but a wood-framed, live-in cabin with a wraparound porch, built atop a large rock. At the time of its construction, the mountain was largely denuded and offered an exceptional view of the surrounding countryside, a direct consequence of the logging era that had stripped Canaan Mountain’s red spruce forest, leaving it vulnerable to the wildfires that followed.
It remained in service for nearly two decades before being abandoned in 1943 in favor of the newly built Bearden Knob Lookout Tower, located two miles away. The cabin was dismantled in 1946, and the trees that have since reclaimed Canaan Mountain now largely close in the view from the rock. What remains is the outcrop itself, worth a scramble for anyone who wants to sit where a lookout once sat and watch for smoke over a forest that, slowly, grew back.
While it connects to Fire Trail 2, there’s no formal trail at the site, but you don’t need one. The rock is right off the road. For those looking to spend more time on the mountain, the Canaan Mountain Backcountry offers dozens of miles of trails through a remote high-elevation landscape, including the Table Rock Trail, which reaches one of the best open-rock panoramas in the northern Mon Forest.
Black Mountain Fire Interpretive Trail
Peaceful and easy boardwalk trail at Black Mountain.
Sunset overlook views at the end of Black Mountain Interpretive Trail.
The former Black Mountain fire tower sat just above today’s Big Spruce Overlook along the Highland Scenic Highway, at the edge of the Cranberry Wilderness. The WV Division of Forestry completed the tower in the 1920s, with telephone lines running to nearby Richwood and Marlinton. In the 1930’s, Civilian Conservation Corps Co. 2589 completed additional work throughout the area. A short quarter-mile ADA-accessible interpretive boardwalk leads from the overlook parking area, explaining the impact of wildfires during West Virginia’s timber boom, and offers wide views to the east at the end, particularly striking at sunrise.
For those looking for more, a challenging 4.6-mile loop drops into the Cranberry Backcountry from the same trailhead and connects to the Williams River Overlook. The start of the trail follows an old railroad grade and passes the remains of an old logging camp before crossing the road into the wilderness. Despite being neighbors, the two management areas have noticeably different climates and vegetation, and the loop provides a unique introduction to what sets them apart.
The Highland Scenic Highway corridor is one of the best bases in the Mon Forest for families. Several short interpretive trails are within a few miles of the overlook: the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area features a half-mile boardwalk through one of the southernmost bogs in the eastern United States, the Honeycomb Rocks Trail winds through a fractured sandstone landscape, and the Tea Creek Interpretive Trail serves as an excellent spot for young birders to get their beaks wet.
Gaudineer Knob Scenic Trail
The easy half mile Gaudineer Loop winds through mossy second growth spruce.
Second growth spruce rises through mossy mats along the trail.
Several dispersed picnic sites are available at Gaudineer.
Gaudineer Knob National Scenic Area sits along US Route 250 between Elkins and Durbin, and its two short trails make it one of the most rewarding stops in the entire National Forest. An easy half-mile loop complete with several picnic areas winds through mossy spruce groves to a stunning scenic overlook. A second half-mile trail winds through one of the last stands of old-growth red spruce in West Virginia, a grove that survived the logging era entirely by accident: a surveying error placed the timber cutting boundary just short of the ridge, leaving the trees untouched while everything around them was stripped.
Walk either trail on a misty morning, and the reason people describe Gaudineer as magical becomes clear quickly. The old spruce stand is mossy and quiet in the way that old forests tend to be, with thick cushions of green covering the root systems and trunks, and a canopy that filters light differently than younger growth. It’s one of the few places in the region where you can get a sense of what the Mon looked like before the logging era.
The tower here was built in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps out of Camp Hutton and named for Donald Gaudineer, the towering 6’7 Greenbrier District ranger who lost his life saving his family from a house fire in Parsons while the tower was still under construction. A commemorative plaque stands at the site at the start of the trail feet from the tower’s foundation. The Greenbrier Ranger Station in nearby Bartow is worth a stop for anyone interested in learning more about Gaudineer and the district’s early history.
Red Spruce Knob Trail
Red Oak Fire Tower Lookout captured in 1935 by E.S. Shipp. Courtesy of the National Archives
Remaining stone foundation piece of the Red Spruce Knob Fire Tower site.
The mossy trail loops around the former firetower site.
Red Spruce Knob Trail Overlook
Mossy trail up to Red Spruce Knob's Fire Tower Site
Red Spruce Knob is a 2.5-mile out-and-back hike right off the Highland Scenic Highway, just 20 minutes from downtown Marlinton. The trail starts with a rocky climb through deciduous forest before gradually transitioning to the wetter, mossy, spruce-dominated upper slopes that give the knob its name. By the time you reach the summit loop, the trail feels like a different world from where you started. The ascent is manageable for most young teenagers, though sustained uphill may be challenging for younger children.
The overlook at the top is tucked along the small summit loop and easy to miss if you’re moving fast, so give yourself time to find it. The view is quiet and remote despite the trail’s popularity, which is part of what makes it worth the climb. The concrete remains of the tower can be seen in the center of the loop, along with some old metal equipment.
Before you start, take a few minutes to read the interpretive poem posted at the trailhead. Wade Kermit Rogers was a technician on the Marlinton Ranger District in the 1960s, and he wrote it as a tribute to the 40-foot steel tower that stood here from 1940 until it was decommissioned in 1965. The poem is worth your time:
To O’I Red Spruce Fire Tower Over this wide earth so far and near, Here stands Red Spruce, year after year... To those brave men whom serve so well, Which in a place is almost like Hell... Though she shakes, and sways, and does the twist, ‘Man, Oh, Man’ do we take a risk... To you, Red Spruce, we all understand the service you have given throughout the land... We salute you, Red Spruce, for all you have done. Life here on this knob is not over... It’s just begun!
Smoke Camp Knob Trail
Interpretive signage at Rothkugel Interpretive Loop and Smoke Camp Trail.
Interpretive signage along historic Rothkugel Plantation at Smoke Camp Knob.
Picnic Area near the old fire lookout foundations at the summit of Smoke Camp Knob Trail.
Smoke Camp Knob is one of the steeper trails in this guide and among the more demanding day-hikes in the Mon Forest overall. The 4-mile out-and-back gains roughly 1,300 feet, with the upper section pushing into a genuinely non-stop steep switchback climb before the summit opens up. The payoff is a broad view across the Allegheny highland, with Spruce Knob visible to the north and the ridgelines of Virginia stretching out to the south and east.
Start at the pulloff near Buffalo Lake on WV Route 28 and walk alongside the road for about a tenth of a mile to reach the trailhead. Before you begin the climb, take time to explore the Rothkugel Plantation, which sits along the road here and has its own short interpretive trail with signage explaining its history.
The plantation is one of the most historically significant sites in the Mon Forest. Between 1906 and 1907, forester Max Rothkugel planted 150 acres here on land owned by the George Craig and Sons Lumber Company. Working on the recommendation of Gifford Pinchot (1st Chief of the Forest Service), Rothkugel planted European larch, Norway spruce, and black locust entirely from seed, creating the first successful commercial reforestation project in West Virginia and one of the first in the nation to demonstrate that sustained-yield forestry practices could work in private industry. The tower was staffed until 1950 and was removed sometime after.
In 1928, as the 30-foot tower was being constructed, Forest Service staff recorded a touching story about one of the Monongahela’s early animal assistants.
During the spring months the Monongahela acquired its first pack animal. A Jenny or burro. The Jenny performed faithful service packing supplies to trail, telephone, and other improvement crews. She was very effectively used in carrying equipment for a small maintenance crew. During the construction of the Smoke Camp Lookout Tower the cook made two trips a day with the Jenny to a nearby spring. After tying two casks of water to the burro, she faithfully returned every time ahead of the cook. After the completion of the tower the burro was used to pack equipment and supplies from the tower to Ranger Station. In making the last trip the Jenny was fatally kicked by a pinto. It was necessary to shoot her. She was buried at the foot of the tower with full honors, and the towerman will erect a stone slab to mark her last resting place.
Pike Knob Trail
Remains of the Pike Knob Fire Tower Lookout in the Nature Conservancy's Preserve.
Windy Appalachian Bald atop Pike Knob Preserve.
In the rain shadow of Spruce Knob, the Pike Knob Preserve serves as a perfect habitat for Red Pine.
Rocky trail towards the summit of Pike Knob.
Pike Knob is the most demanding hike on this list and also the most rewarding at the top. The trail is unmarked and follows a rocky ridgeline through a landscape jointly managed by the US Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy as a research preserve, which accounts for the minimal signage and the exceptional botanical character of the terrain. Wear good boots. The 3-mile out-and-back trail is rocky throughout, and the approach along the North Fork Mountain corridor is exposed and dry due to Spruce Knob’s impressive rain shadow. However, due to its remoteness and difficulty, you’re almost certain to have the trail to yourself
The former tower site, where a 90-foot steel tower stood in the 1930s, is roughly 2 miles in. It’s worth continuing another mile to the scenic overlook, where the ridge opens into a grassy Appalachian bald.
From the overlook, the views open in both directions: to the west, Nelson Rocks, Spruce Knob, and the full length of the North Fork Valley; to the east, Germany Valley stretching toward the Shenandoah. It is one of the better vantage points in the Mon Forest, and one of the few where you can see both the interior of the Allegheny plateau and the ridge-and-valley topography of eastern West Virginia in the same glance.
About Appalachian Balds
Balds are open, treeless summits found on high-elevation ridges throughout the central and southern Appalachians, notable for occurring well below the natural tree-line, in terrain where forest cover should theoretically dominate. Their origins remain one of ecology’s genuinely unresolved questions. Theories range from ancient megafauna grazing and Native American land management to post-glacial climate shifts, fire history, and soil conditions. What’s clear is that many balds were historically maintained by cattle grazing and that, since grazing has been removed from most managed lands, many are slowly being overtaken by forest succession. The ones that remain open are ecologically significant, hosting rare plant communities adapted to exposed, well-drained, grassy conditions. The bald at Pike Knob, with its unusual stand of red pine and native grasses, falls under the Nature Conservancy’s stewardship.
Please note that vehicle access to the preserve via Old Firetower Road and County Road 28/6 is very limited. While it may add an extra mile or two to the hike, we strongly recommend parking on the roadside pull-offs further down the hill unless you have a high-clearance vehicle.
More Former Fire Tower Hikes
On the lookout for more former fire tower activities in the Monongahela National Forest region? Check out these trails and overnight stays below!
- Whispering Spruce Trail (MNF – Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area): 0.5-mile loop, easy. The former wooden fire tower was replaced with a stone tower for public use in the 1960s.
- North Fork Mountain Trail (MNF – Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area): 22-mile point-to-point, challenging. Located along the middle of the present-day North Fork Mountain Trail.
- Rohrbaugh Plains Trail (MNF): 7-mile point-to-point, challenging. Located in Dolly Sods Wilderness. Beautiful trail with an impressive overlook, but it is strongly advised not to locate the Dolly Sods Plains tower site due to the risk of unexploded ordinance in the area during usage by the US Army.
- Rich Mountain Battlefield Trail (Beverly, WV – Rich Mountain Battlefield Association): Easy 0.5-mile walking trail. Tower disassembled and moved to Snowshoe Resort.
- Potato Hole & Meatbox Run Trail (Kumbrabow State Forest, Elkins, WV): 5-mile challenging loop trail to the former fire tower site. A smaller wooden tower has been constructed in its place, offering excellent views of the Tygart River Valley and Shavers Mountains.
- Crestline Trail & Ridge Patch Loop (Seneca State Forest, Marlinton, WV): A moderate 3-mile loop to the former Michael Mountain tower site, which was relocated to the nearby Thorny Mountain, where it now serves as an overnight rental!
- Nancy Hart Grave (Richwood, WV): In the hills above Richwood at the gravesite of famous Confederate Spy Nancy Hart, you’ll find the remains of the former Manning Knob Fire Tower.
- Hopkins Mountain Fireman’s Cabin (MNF – Blue Bend Recreation Area, White Sulphur Springs, WV): While the tower is gone, spend the night in the restored cabin used by lookouts.