DEVIL'S HEAD FIRE LOOKOUT! (A Hike Near Rampart Range Road)
May 18, 2004
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How to get there: Take
Rampart Range Road south nine miles (from Highway 67 near Sedalia).
You can not miss this turnoff as seen by this sign. |
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Special thanks to my good friend Phil for driving
and telling me about this place. Check out his blog:
www.philladden.com.
Other pages Phil is in:
Phil's 1955 Chevy Truck
Phil Runs For HC
Phil in Phoenix, AZ
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Near the beginning of the trail are some towering
aspens! |
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The trail is 1.4 miles, and along the way we enjoyed some of these nice views. |
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At this sign that prohibited cutting through switchbacks, I kind of
lost my cool. Ugh, I don't like being restricted! :p) |
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I took a few photos of informative signs, including this one about wildfires. |
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Look at all that snow! :) |
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At the top of the trail is a cabin where the lookout ranger
lives, along with more informative signs and a long stairway to the actual lookout. |
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There it is! The Devils Head Fire Lookout!
Elevation 9,748 feet, 143 stairs to the top and an impressive 360 degree view of the mountians! :) |
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Thunder Mountain, looking southwest. In the bottom photo,
you'll notice a purplish hue in the terrain. Well, that actually looked more brown in person
and that's just a small part of the "burn area" of the Hayman Fire of 2002. |
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Looking northwest! |
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Looking straight north, Pikes Peak
stands afar with Rampart Range in the foreground. |
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Looking south, some of those lofty peaks are in
Rocky Mountain National Park. |
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A few photos looking towards the east,
including all sorts of large, funky-shaped rocks. |
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That's Bill and Steve, the two very friendly forest rangers who were up there. |
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The forest ranger points something out to Phil. |
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Check out the card they gave me. You know, I should have given them my business card! :) |
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I thought this FAQ sheet was funny! :) |
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Now this was interesting! They still use
old, manual compasses. The lookout is situated exaclty due north & south,
and so if there's a fire, the lookout can locate the direction of the fire
with a large compass. The map on the right helps if the area is
beyond the scope of the first compass. Pretty cool, huh? |
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Get this: The lookout gets struck by lightning quite often! And so, that stool is supposedly lightning proof. (Notice the glass bottoms.) In the second photo, some kind of wiring was placed on the roof which deters lightning from striking directly on the lookout building, and that tall antenna (bottom photo) typically gets struck nowadays! |
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Forest Ranger Bill has been working up at that lookout for quite a long time, and yes, it still serves to spot and report fires. |
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That's Bill's backpack that he carries with him everyday. Way to go! |
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One last shot of Pikes Peak, from inside the lookout. |
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Oh! This is neat! Here's an explanation of a story that has gone down through the generations about the Devil's Head area. Pretty darn interesting! |
