United States observation tower
Desert View Watchtower
You can see 228 km from here, looking north.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 228 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 228 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
- 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 17Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 2,265 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 17 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in June and from September to October.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset55%
- Febwest4 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- Marwest2 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Aprwestsets on an open horizon59%
- Maynorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset62%
- Junnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset70%
- Julnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset50%
- Augwest2 min before the sea-level sunset55%
- Sepwest2 min before the sea-level sunset68%
- Octwest4 min before the sea-level sunset66%
- Novsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset62%
- Decsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset52%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Desert View Watchtower.
70-foot (21 m)-high stone building located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon
Desert View Watchtower is an observation tower in United States, 2,265 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 228 km away, looking north.
17 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Humphreys Peak (3,847 m), 79 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in June and from September to October.
Get there and stay
- Going upCheck the opening hours before you go: towers and decks close in bad weather.
- Desert View Campgroundcampsite · 0.6 km · 3 within 10 km
- Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 31 km in a straight lineCar hire at FLG airport (Flagstaff)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 6other viewpoints within 5 kmNavajo Point, Lipan Point, Desert View Watchtower and 3 more
- 4named peaks within 5 kmCardenas Butte, Cedar Mountain, Escalante Butte and 1 more
- 2marked trails within 3 kmTanner Trail, Cape Solitude Trail
- 5car parks within 3 km
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 3campsites within 10 kmDesert View Campground, Wild camping
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- shelters and huts within 5 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
- places to stay within 10 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Desert View Watchtower, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas36 mountains within 25 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Desert View Watchtower
United States
- 83Viewyas Score
- 228 kmFarthest ridge
- 17Peaks in view
- 2,265 mAltitude
Big Springs Lookout Tower
United States · 76 km
- 83Viewyas Score
- 193 kmFarthest ridge
- 39Peaks in view
- 2,414 mAltitude
Antelope Canyon
United States · 99 km
- 69Viewyas Score
- 134 kmFarthest ridge
- 5Peaks in view
- 1,369 mAltitude
Toroweap Overlook
United States · 112 km
- 60Viewyas Score
- 84 kmFarthest ridge
- 1Peaks in view
- 1,379 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q2062022) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Darkskyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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