Traversing to Fire Towers

Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: Winter - 2023

While modern high technology currently pinpoints wildfires throughout these remote mountainous regions, there was a time when human beings were the fire spotters; they were assigned shifts at high lookout towers primarily on balds (mountain summits covered primarily by native grasses or shrubs instead of trees) and had access to communication systems to provide alerts if necessary.

Those fire lookout towers are now go-to hiking spots in that they afford, if still safely accessible, an opportunity to enjoy an even greater and more majestic view than the high points on which they sit. 

Three fire towers in the Nantahala National Forest are worth adding to a hiking bucket list: Albert Mountain, Wesser Bald, and Wayah Bald. 

Albert Mountain
photo by Ryan Karcher

Although the top catwalk of the Albert Mountain fire lookout tower is locked for safety reasons, one can climb the steps for awe-inspiring, 5,000-plus-elevation views toward Franklin, Highlands, and Georgia. The current metal tower was built in the 1950s to replace an older, wooden tower on nearby Standing Indian Mountain. 

The original Wesser Bald tower was built in 1936 by the Civilian Conversation Corps as a live-in lookout. And, although what was a live-in cab was destroyed by arson in 1979, the existing observation deck was constructed in the early 1990s by the United States Forest Service and provides 360-degree mountain views of the Nantahala National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Wesser Bald
photo by Deena Bouknight

The original Wayah Bald tower was built in 1937 of native stone and rebuilt in 2018 after it was burned during the 2016 wildfires.

The recent novel, Light Fracture, begins and ends with a main character’s setting at the Wayah Bald fire tower, prior to its stone construction: “The tower, cabin-like until many years after he left the world, was a solitary, open, chestnut structure situated at the highest point, with map, compass, and alidade [sighting device] as his inanimate companions. During especially dry times, another shared the tight six-by-nine-foot space. The lookout, in fact, did not suit his elevation needs. He spoke often of a higher, permanent stone structure on the grounds of the Bald, a treeless summit in North Carolina with views of Tennessee to the west and to the south extending into South Carolina toward Greenville. The northern vistas stretched beyond Sylva and Waynesville in the direction of Asheville. To the east, Georgia. Long before the tower was built for the white man to detect fires, Natives scouted game and observed packs of wolves – to whom the name “Wa-ya” is credited.”

Wayah Bald
photo by Ryan Karcher

Most fire towers were constructed during the Great Depression and into the early 1950s. A lookout would call neighboring towers to confirm the location of a fire so firefighters could be deployed. 

None of these fire tower hikes is long, and each one is listed on the AllTrails app. Mooney Gap to Albert Mountain is a 3.1 out and back hike; Wesser Bald via Appalachian Trail is 2.8 miles out and back; and, one can drive to, park, and take a short walk to the Wayah Bald tower.