Dee Wright Observatory - Oregon - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The DEE WRIGHT OBSERVATORY, maintained by the Forest Service, is reached by a flight of stone steps (R). Eleven narrow windows are spaced at intervals around the lava walls of the tower-like room. Each of these windows is focused on a particular mountain peak, with its name and distance from the viewpoint carved into the stone. Additional large windows command a wide sweep of the Cascade Range. Immediately visible are Belknap Crater, with a forest lookout on the rim of Little Belknap Crater, Mount Washington, the North and Middle Sister, and Mount Scott. To the north extends the Cascade Range, with the snowcapped tops of the higher peaks rising at intervals over vast areas of timbered mountainsides. Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, tower above the lesser peaks. To the east is the plateau over which the highway has just passed, with its scattered stands of pine and desolate stretches of semi-arid land To the south are more lava fields, and the glacier-torn sides of the Three Sisters. Far to the south towers Mount McLoughlin. - Oregon: End of the Trail, Tour 6, pg 454

Today the Observatory is a major stop along the McKenzie-Santiam Pass Scenic Byway. A handicap accessible ramp and interpretive signs have been added.