Suntop Lookout — Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022

We did the short trail from the parking lot to SunTop Lookout.

The forest road was not bad at all. We made it up with a Honda Civic and there were just a few shallow potholes. There was a section with washboarding as someone mentioned on a previous report, but it wasn't as noticeable until we drove back down at night.

We didn't start at the mapped Google maps trailhead on NF-7315. Instead we walked up the road to suntop and got on the trail from there. The trail is very well maintained and had a lot of interesting foliage that I haven't seen on other trails before. It is a steep climb for most of the trail and gets narrow, but there are no obstacles on the path. 

We got to the lookout just before sunset around 8pm and it was a very beautiful sight. There was a volunteer at the top who was asking folks who drove up with their car to leave because the gate to the road is only open 8am - 8pm. He said we are free to stay for star gazing as long as we want, but camping is prohibited - we are free to camp in the parking lot though, which a few people we met did.

Stayed around 3 hours to get some pictures of the stars. We met 3 other people there stargazing and 1 person who brought up 150 lbs of photography equipment. The night sky conditions were really great and stars were decently visible despite the glow from city light pollution. 

Thanks to all the volunteers who maintained this lookout so well and made it very accessible!