Frying Pan Mountain Lookout Tower

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

Frying Pan Mountain Lookout Tower, a 70-ft tall steel tower built in 1941 by the USFS and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is easily reached by a short 0.7-mile hike from the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina—watch for the trailhead at the entrance to Forest Service Road 450, at Milepost 409.6.

Begin your hike by parking in the small lot adjacent to the gate across FS 450—the gate is always closed, so just walk around it and proceed hiking up the gravel road to the summit.

The hike begins to gain elevation from the very start, with very few flat sections—gaining 400 feet in 0.7-miles. The gravel road, lined on both sides by thick vegetation, provides the hiker with a colorful wildflower display in the spring and summer—goatsbeard, black-eyed Susan’s, oxeye daisies, fleabane and milkweed teem with butterflies.

Once you gain the summit of 5,340-ft Frying Pan Mountain, the lookout tower will dominate your view—to see the open vista of the Southern Appalachians, make your way up the grid-like steel stairs of the 70-ft tall Frying Pan Tower (the tallest in Western North Carolina). Those with a fear of heights might opt to climb only to the first few platforms, but brave hikers who climb all five flights of stairs to the top platform get the best views—stunning views of nearby Cold Mountain, views of Mt. Pisgah, the Shining Rock Wilderness, the Cradle of Forestry, the Pisgah National Forest, and distant Mt. Mitchell in the Black Mountains make the vertigo-inducing climb worthwhile.