Zenobia Peak ...

My family's had a summer place in northeastern Utah for over 70 years, up in the Uinta Mountains, and I spent long stretches of my childhood summers up there, wandering across sagebrush hills and through Ponderosa forests.  We spent time exploring the high desert country around Dinosaur National Monument, too, and I really grew to love that country, especially the historic, spectacular landscapes around Brown's Park and the Gates of Lodore.

And there's a fire lookout out there!  It's on super-remote Zenobia Peak, the highest point in Dinosaur.  The Park Service stationed lookouts there during the monument's earliest years, but the tower there wasn't built until the fall of 1964.   I remember my uncle being excited about visiting it after it was built, and I think we made the expedition out there when I was very young, but I can't find any photographs proof.  I was always intrigued by the place, though, and I finally made it out there in 2019, with my dog Lewis riding shotgun.

Zenobia is one of the hardest lookouts to visit, ... getting there requires hours of two-track dirt-road driving, and the last few miles of the route crosses private ranchland that is off-limits to visitors.  (A friend of mine was able to arrange permission for me.)  It was absolutely worth it, though -- Zenobia is an amazing spot, and one of my favorite lookouts.