Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

July 23, 2025

2170m

Baker City, OR

Big Lookout Mountain is one of the prominent peaks in the NE Oregon not far from the border with Idaho. This one boasts over 900 m prominence. The ascent is nothing fancier than a “walk up” and in some days the summit spur road is not gated that one could drive (4×4, high clearance) to the very summit. The gate was unfortunately locked when Erica and I went. The walking distance was less than 2 km each way but this “ascent” would still require more than 3 hours round trip from I-84 considering the long drive.

Erica and I decided at the very last minute to switch Sturgill Peak to Big Lookout Mtn. because I was scared of Idaho’s road at this point. The latter would also be faster/shorter, and we weren’t doing particularly great on time. We were still an hour east of Twin Falls when we woke up at 7:30 am in the morning and the plan was to drive back to Vancouver on the same day. We would earn 1 hour thank to the time change but still, this would be an exhausting push. I made a horrible mistake trying to follow Google’s direction to the top of Big Lookout Mtn. as Google directed me onto Sisley Creek Road in Gold Cliff Gulch. I didn’t bother to check the map until facing a locked gate. We wasted at least 40 minutes here. After backtracking to I-84 we finally found the correct road. The condition of this road was quite good but it was a very long one. I was also hoping to push the Subaru to the very summit to save time, but we were “forced” to earn this peak ourselves thank to the locked gate. I think it was because of the “extreme” fire danger.

The walking up the summit “spur” road was thankfully very scenic, and overall I wasn’t regretting walking it. After one or two switchbacks we were in the open and the views were quite great. I was surprised to see such desert landscape in this part of Oregon/Idaho as the elevation is quite high, but I guess this area doesn’t see much precipitation at all. There’s even a lookout structure on the summit but we didn’t bother to check thoroughly out.

After snapping a few “victory” shots we quickly jogged back to the vehicle and started the long drive homewards. I somehow was able to stay awake for most of the way. The dinner stop was in Yakima, WA and then I pushed us all the way back to Marysville. Erica took over the portion between Marysville and Bellingham and I did the rest of the drive back home, arriving at 2 am. I was feeling dizzy when stepping outside the car and was still feeling car sick even a few days afterwards. Overall the trip was 6 days return from Vancouver and we covered more than 4000 km distance and bagged 8 peaks including 3 “ultras”.