Lonesome Traveler

In the summer of 1956, Jack Kerouac, famous beat poet, spent 63 days alone at Desolation as a fire lookout.

His time there would later be chronicled in The Dharma Bums, Lonesome Traveler, and Desolation Angels.

As someone who loves both books and fire lookouts, naturally I romanticize the hell out of Desolation, as many people do.

For many years, the summit sat high on my to-do list until I eventually made the perfectly reasonable decision to visit all of Washington's standing fire lookouts.