East Pocket
October 3rd, 2020
Dog Friendly: Yes. We brought our little guy!
Fee: No fee. This is a dispersed campsite.
Restrooms: No.
Fresh Water: No.
Sharing locations is a privilege. Please leave this area as you found it. Do not carve into trees, leave your trash, or harm nature in anyway. East Pocket is a dispersed camping area North of Sedona. It is also nicknamed “The End of The World”. It overlooks Sedona and the view honestly took my breath away. To get here from Phoenix you take the I-17 North until you reach exit 337 onto SR-89A head west off the exit, straight through the first roundabout and then head north from the 2nd roundabout. Soon you’ll turn left on Purple Sage Trail. Follow the road until you reach Woody Mountain Road which becomes Forest Service Road 231. You can also type in “East Pocket Knob” into your Apple or Google Maps app and it will give you directions. The trip is about 3.5 hours from Phoenix. It takes so long because you will be on a Forest Service Road that is a rough dirt road often washboarded. The Forest Service Road is 25 miles long and it takes about 50+ minutes depending on what type of car you have. We have a Subaru Forester Sport so it took us about 55 minutes to an hour to get to the camp ground. We definitely recommend to have a high clearance and four wheel drive vehicle. We saw sedans there, but we definitely would not recommend it. You will be able to tell you are close to the campground because you will see other peoples cars set up to camp. The road will come to Y, stay right and that is where the campgrounds with the best views will be. If you go left it will eventually lead you to the road up to the Fire Lookout Tower that is at the end of the Forest Service Road 231. You can camp anywhere you want. There are no assigned camping spots. It is first-come-first-serve. We go to the campsite around 2:00 pm and found a good spot. As the day went on more people came. We had people to the right of us, but no one directly to the left of us. I thought it was peaceful. It wasn’t insanely busy in my opinion, but there were definitely people there. Luckily it is a big space!
We set up camp, then explored and hiked over to the Fire Lookout Tower. From where we set up camp it was about 1 mile round trip with a steady incline! The A/B Young Trail is behind the Lookout Tower. This is a 4.5 mile out and back trail that takes you down into Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona. We wanted to hike this, but didn’t end up hiking it. We hope to come back and hike it! It is also important to note that you do get good service here!
WHAT TO BRING:
- Tent! We used our REI Co-op Passage 2 tent we purchased the REI Co-op Backpacking Bundle – it comes with a sleeping bag, footprint, and a sleeping pad. This is a backpacking tent, but worked just fine for us to camp near our car. We hope to get a second larger tent for backpacking, but for now a backpacking tent is more versatile.
- For the outside
- Additional foot print or tarp in case it rains
- “door mat” for easy shoe removal
- extra stakes + mallet
- spare parts you think necessary after inspecting your tent prior to leaving
- For the inside
- mattress pad, sleeping bag, pillow
- lantern or flashlight to hang from ceiling
- portable chargers
- Table + chairs
- Cooking system and utensils
- Cooler
- Lantern and/or headlamps + flashlights
- Layers. Check the weather. It got cold at night, but was warm during the day. There was a 40 degree drop from the day to the night.
- Trash bags! LEAVE NO TRACE
