2023 Fire Season

Wow. What a season! My third year at Goat Peak fire lookout in 2023 was one to remember, filled with wild weather, intense fire activity, and some unforgettable surprises.

A Goat on Goat!

One of the most common questions I get at Goat Peak is: “Have you ever actually seen a goat up here?” After two seasons of saying no, I finally got to say yes! One morning, while making coffee, I heard what I assumed was an early visitor moving around beneath the lookout. Imagine my surprise when I peeked out and was met with an unexpected guest: a huge mountain goat, staring up at me. He hung around the lookout in the early mornings and late evenings for much of July and early August before finally moving on to perhaps some bigger views.

A Season of Fire and Lightning

This season brought big lightning storms that resulted in dramatic fire activity. Lightning ignited several major fires, including the Sourdough Mountain Fire in North Cascades National Park and the Crater Creek Fire in British Columbia, the later which produced a jaw-dropping pyrocumulus cloud like nothing I’d ever seen. The Airplane Lake Fire in the Glacier Peak Wilderness also put on a show, adding to the already intense fire season.

Goat Peak was buzzing with fire activity and my radio never went silent, especially when the Blue Lake fire took hold on Highway 20, a notoriously difficult communication corridor. I spent much of my season monitoring and relaying communications for Blue Lake, in addition to our backcountry recreation crews. Some days, I used more than six different radio repeaters just to keep up with the traffic. Goat Peak felt a bit like Wenatchee Dispatch North this year!

A Fire Boss Salute & Special Visitors

One of the most incredible moments of the summer was a fleet of Fire Boss aircraft buzzing the lookout as they traveled between their base in Omak and the Sourdough Mountain Fire. Not only did they give me some fantastic flybys, but they even used their exhaust smoke system to offer a fun salute. Hudson even tried to herd them from the catwalk.

I also got to visit with Tahoe Engine 342, who spent a few weeks on fire service in the Valley. And for the first time in three seasons, I welcomed equine visitors—a friend and her 3.5-year-old mustang made the climb to the summit—my first horse at Goat Peak!

Record-Breaking Crowds and Late-Season Smoke Reports

With fire-related trail closures impacting access to other areas, Goat Peak had a massive surge in visitors and over Labor Day weekend alone, I greeted more than 500 people! I called in two lightning-strike smokes near Blue Buck Mountain in the Methow Wildlife Area and caught a late season fire start near Yellow Jacket in Mazama.

Northern Lights and a Snowy Goodbye

The northern lights were hopping in 2023 and in late September, I witnessed one of the most incredible northern lights displays I’ve ever seen. The aurora stretched from east to west across the entire sky, completely overhead, and at one point, it was so bright the inside of Goat Peak was illuminated as if it were a full-moon night.

And finally—on my very last morning of the season, I woke up to a few inches of fresh beautiful snow covering the summit. I had dreamed of being at Goat during a snowstorm and my wish came true. Of course it also came with a coat of ice on the lookout, and a wind chill in the single digits, which meant it was more than time to say goodbye to 7,000′ in the North Cascades. It was the perfect way to close out an unforgettable third season.

Here are some more photos from the 2023 season. Enjoy!