Summit Lake Ranger Station is a log cabin about twenty by thirty feet in size, not counting the porch on the north end. It consists of horizontal logs with notched, overlapping corner joints, and a gable roof finished with cedar shakes. The ridgepole of the gable roof is offset from the center so that the rear slope of the roof is longer and extends lower than the front slope.

Summit Lake Ranger Station is one of the first three buildings erected by the young National Park Service in Lassen Volcanic National Park along with the ranger station at Warner Valley and the ranger station at Butte Lake which was demolished many years ago.

Source: NRHP nomination submitted in 1978.