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Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Kendrick Lookout

Also known as Kendrick Peak

A 1964 steel tower on Kendrick Peak replaced a 1930s L-4 cab and a 1911 lookout cabin; sources disagree on whether it is still active.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Reached via Kendrick Mountain Trail #22, about 27 miles from Williams, AZ
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story building10 ft steel tower with 14x14 ft flat-roof cab and catwalk (1964); earlier L-4 cab (early 1930s) and 1911 log cabin lookoutThe design: L-4
Built of
Logs
Built
1911
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
10,243 ft (3,122 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kaibab National Forest, Williams Ranger District
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.40748, −111.85044
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-kendrick

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.

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

History

Then and now

  1. 1911 BuiltLog cabin built about a quarter mile below the summit as sleeping quarters; first used as a fire lookout in 1912 (NHLR calls it the second-oldest fire-detection structure in AZ/NM)Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. No record between 1911 and 1930
  3. 1930 BuiltL-4 cab erected on the peak (early 1930s, exact year not given)Source: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1930 and 1964
  5. 1964 BuiltCurrent 10 ft steel tower with 14x14 ft flat-roof cab replaced the L-4 structureSource: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1964 and 1988
  7. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesCabin listed on National Register of Historic Places as 'Kendrick Lookout Tower and Cabin', January 28, 1988Source: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 1994 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered February 21, 1994 as NHLR US 78, AZ 1Source: 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Kendrick Lookout sits atop Kendrick Peak in the Kaibab National Forest, northwest of Flagstaff, at just over 10,200 feet.1 Fire detection on the peak goes back to the early 1900s: a log cabin was built about a quarter mile below the summit in 1911, originally as sleeping quarters, and was first used as a fire lookout the following year.1,2 The register calls it the second-oldest fire-detection structure in Arizona or New Mexico.1 An L-4-style cab went up on the peak itself in the early 1930s.1 That structure was later replaced by the tower still in use today: a 10-foot steel tower carrying a 14-by-14-foot flat-roofed cab and catwalk, built in 1964.1

The 1994 nomination to the National Historic Lookout Register credits Forest Archaeologist Teri Cleeland, FFLA Arizona/New Mexico director Dave Lorenz, former lookout Gary McElfresh, and Chalender District Ranger Gene Waldrip; it was registered that February as NHLR US 78, AZ 1.1 The older cabin had already been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since January 1988, under the name "Kendrick Lookout Tower and Cabin."2

The cabin has twice been wrapped in protective fire-shelter material to save it from wildfire: during the Pumpkin Fire in 2000 and the Boundary Fire in 2017. Both times it survived, though other, unrelated cabin ruins nearby burned.2

Sources disagree on the tower's current state. The NHLR register (last updated in 2016) describes it as in active service, and Wikipedia separately reports that the Forest Service's own description has the tower open to visitors in summer when staffed.1,2 Wikipedia also says that as of mid-2024 the tower appeared damaged and likely abandoned, though it cites no source for that claim.2 Nothing in the sources gathered here resolves that conflict, so a visitor should expect uncertainty about whether it is currently staffed. The Forest Service's own trail page for the route makes no mention of current staffing either way. Kendrick Mountain Trail #22, about 27 miles from Williams, Arizona, climbs to the summit area where the structures stand.3

  1. Kendrick Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/kendrick-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Kendrick Lookout Tower and Cabin, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendrick_Lookout_Tower_and_Cabin (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Kendrick Mountain Trail #22, Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/recreation/trails/kendrick-mountain-trail-22 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Kendrick Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
The lookout tower seen from below, 2016
The lookout tower seen from below, 2016 (2016)Photo: Dyan Bone / U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Kaibab National Forest · Public domain (U.S. federal government work) · 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, visiting details, dates, photos, 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.