Devil's Peak could have no other name. The trail leading to the craggy top runs just over 3.5 miles, but gains some 3200 feet in elevation. I assured myself and my father it'd be just fine. I mean, how hard could three miles be? Initial online research seemed to answer the question with an emphatic REALLY DANG HARD. I figured, what do they know? And either way, the views would surely be worth it. Right?
Exploring lookout towers has been a favorite #content building activity of the Instagram and Tumblr sets for some time—and for a good reason, they're really cool—but it wasn't really on my radar until I stumbled across an ancient looking online registry of US wildfire lookout towers a while back.
After a bit of clicking and comparing to google maps, it became apparent that one of the better looking towers happened to be located just about a mile from the small forest service cabin my family has owned on Oregon's Mt. Hood—about an hour east of Portland—for decades.