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Fire lookout · Yavapai County, Arizona

Hyde Mountain Lookout

Also known as Hyde Mountain Lookout House, Camp Wood 2 Lookout Tower

A 1936 CCC-era lookout house on the Prescott National Forest, no longer in service, reached only by a rigorous hike of about an hour.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. No road access to the lookout; visitors hike about an hour from the trailhead. The register says the building is no longer in service.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Trailhead is 43 miles from Prescott, 18 of them dirt road. The route climbs from about 5,800 ft to the lookout at 7,270 ft. The 2020 visitor found the trail rigorous. No NHLR sign or direction sign at the trailhead.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2020-05-08)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-5 groundhouse per NHLR; NRHP record lists the Civilian Conservation Corps as architectThe design: L-5
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,147 ft (2,178 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Yavapai County, Arizona
Coordinates
34.83528, −112.91853
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-hyde-mountain

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. 1936 BuiltL-5 groundhouse constructed (NHLR). NRHP significant year 1936, with CCC listed as architect. A March 1937 newspaper item still described the lookout as yet to be built.Sources: nhlr.org, npgallery.nps.gov, westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 First staffedMay 1938: a ranger placed Wayne Black as lookout on the point (newspaper item quoted by westlookouts). Earliest staffing named in the sources.Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1988
  4. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register record dated January 28, 1988 (NPGallery 'Date Published'; NRIS 87002491). The record gives no separate listing date.Source: npgallery.nps.gov
  5. No record between 1988 and 2003
  6. 2003 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, August 5, 2003Source: nhlr.org
  7. No record between 2003 and 2020
  8. 2020 EventVisit report, May 8, 2020: good condition, glass intact, needs paint, screen door needs work, not staffedSource: nhlr.org
  9. 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.

Hyde Mountain Lookout stands in the Prescott National Forest near Camp Wood, in Yavapai County.1,2 A March 1937 newspaper item said the planned lookout would address a shortfall in the Forest Service's fire control system.3 The register dates the lookout house to 1936 and calls it an L-5 groundhouse.1 The National Register record also gives 1936 as its significant year and lists the Civilian Conservation Corps as architect.2 That 1937 item still described the lookout as one that "will be built soon," so the sources disagree on exactly when it went up.3

The earliest staffing the sources name is Wayne Black.3 In May 1938 a ranger placed him as lookout on the point, according to a newspaper item quoted on a lookout history site.3 The National Historic Lookout Register recorded the lookout on August 5, 2003,1 and the National Register of Historic Places record for the lookout house is dated January 28, 1988.2

Today the register describes Hyde Mountain as semi-active and no longer in service.1 A May 2020 visit report found the building in good condition, though it needed paint and a screen door repair, and it noted the lookout was not staffed.1

Getting close takes a hike, not a drive.1 The register notes there is no road access, so the last stretch is a hike of roughly an hour.1 A trail guide puts the trailhead 43 miles from Prescott, with 18 of those miles on dirt, and gives a start near 5,800 feet and a lookout at 7,270 feet.4 The 2020 visitor called the trail rigorous.1

  1. Hyde Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/hyde-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Hyde Mountain Lookout House, NRIS 87002491, National Register of Historic Places via NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/87002491 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hyde Mountain, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), transcribed Prescott Evening Courier items, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/hyde-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. 4. Hyde Mountain (trail guide PDF), highlandscenter.org, https://highlandscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/04.-Hyde-Mtn.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hyde Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hyde Mountain 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, dates, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.