Desert View Watchtower

Desert View Watchtower is a round, stone observation tower on the eastern South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Mary Colter designed it, and it was built in 1932; today it is a National Historic Landmark. I’d keep it on an east-rim drive: the building is worth seeing inside and out, and the nearby rim adds a different angle on the canyon. The top observation deck takes 85 steps to reach, and access to the upper floors depends on staffing, so treat the climb as a bonus. The lower View Room and the rim are still a good stop.

From the tower, windows and black-glass reflectoscopes frame the eastern canyon. Look northeast to follow the Colorado River where it leaves Marble Canyon and widens into the Grand Canyon. A few steps away, Desert View Point looks east over the Painted Desert and west toward the river’s big bend and the North Rim; on a clear day the panorama reaches well over 100 miles. For a photo that shows where the tower sits, step back on the approach and include the canyon rim behind the stonework.

Colter drew on several Ancestral Puebloan towers of the Colorado Plateau, especially Hovenweep and Mesa Verde’s Round Tower, without copying any one building. She placed weathered, mostly local stone to make the tower feel part of the rim and reused timber inside. A concealed steel frame was engineered by builders from the Santa Fe Railway. Look near the top for white stones arranged in a pattern inspired by Chaco Canyon; some of the tower’s stones also carry petroglyphs.

The round ground-floor room was designed as a place to rest and look out. Its shape is kiva-inspired, with canyon-facing windows and black-glass reflectoscopes that cut glare and bring the rock layers into view. The room was restored to Colter’s open plan in 2015 after years as retail space, and it now also holds a park store.

The stair landings are part of the visit. Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painted the first landing gallery, showing physical and spiritual origins of Hopi life. Ceiling paintings by Fred Geary reproduce imagery from Abo Rockshelter, now within Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. If the upper stairs are open, take time with the paintings rather than treating the climb as a quick trip to the view.

The dark cliffs along the Colorado River below Desert View are volcanic lavas that were there before the canyon was cut. Much of the canyon wall is sedimentary rock hardened from material deposited by wind or water. From the rim, compare the dark river corridor with the lighter, layered walls around it.