FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

East Pocket Lookout

A 1943 CT-2 timber lookout on East Pocket Knob near Sedona, registered in 2001, evacuated in 2014 and structure-protected during the 2026 Pocket Fire.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Approach is by hiking the A. B. Young Trail into the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness. No source read confirms public entry to the cab itself, and it is a working lookout.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
A. B. Young Trail, about 2 miles one way with 33 switchbacks and about 1,950 ft of elevation gain
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerCT-2 timber tower (Timber Engineering Corp.) with a 14 x 14 modified L-4 live-in cab with catwalkCab: L-4; tower: Region 6 timber towers (CT, TT)
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1943
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,196 ft (2,193 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
34.97558, −111.76850
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-east-pocket

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.1 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1943 BuiltTimber Engineering Corp. CT-2 timber tower with a 14 x 14 modified L-4 live-in cabSources: nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1948 EventPlans quoted from a 1948 Tucson Daily Citizen item called for radio lookout sets at Elden, East Pocket and Baker ButteSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1948 and 2001
  4. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 1, 2001; nominated by Dave Lorenz, Director, AZ/NM FFLASource: nhlr.org
  5. 2014 FireSlide Fire threatened about 100 Oak Creek Canyon structures, including this tower; tower evacuated May 20, 2014Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 2026 FirePocket Fire ignited June 19, 2026; structure protection maintained at East Pocket Lookout Tower; no structures or homes lost in the fireSource: fs.usda.gov
  7. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

East Pocket Lookout sits on the summit of East Pocket Knob, about 7.5 miles north of Sedona, on land managed by Coconino National Forest.1 The tower went up in 1943 as one of the rare CT-2 timber towers made by Timber Engineering Corp.2,3,1 Its 14-by-14-foot live-in cab, with a catwalk, follows a modified L-4 pattern.2,3 Wikipedia notes that just two wooden fire lookouts survive in Arizona, and this tower is one of them.1

In 1948 a newspaper item that one local history site quotes said plans called for radio lookout sets at Elden, East Pocket and Baker Butte.3 The tower came under threat in May 2014, when the Slide Fire was reported burning north through Oak Creek Canyon and endangering about 100 structures, including this tower.3 The threat led to the tower's evacuation.3 I found no dated record of who staffs the tower now, so staffing is unconfirmed.

The National Historic Lookout Register added East Pocket on April 1, 2001, nominated by Dave Lorenz of the AZ/NM Forest Fire Lookout Association.2 More recently, the Pocket Fire ignited on June 19, 2026, about 7 miles north of Sedona.4 The Forest Service reports that the tower received structure protection during that fight, and that the fire never claimed a single structure or home.4 None of the sources I read report the tower burning, moving or coming down, so it appears to be standing.2,3,4

Getting up there means walking, since the summit lies in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness.1 The A. B. Young Trail climbs about two miles one way, with 33 switchbacks and roughly 1,950 feet of gain.1 The trail was first built in the 1880s to reach grazing pastures, and the Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt it in the 1930s.1 I could not confirm whether the public may enter the cab itself, and none of the sources describe the tower as a rental. Treat it as a working lookout and check with the Forest Service before you climb.

  1. East Pocket Knob, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pocket_Knob (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. East Pocket Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/east-pocket-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. East Pocket, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/east-pocket.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Recent Large Wildfires, Coconino National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/coconino/fire/info/recent-large-wildfires (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of East Pocket Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: register numbers, access, dates, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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