6.9 miles away
Vishnu Temple
A summit within the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County, Arizona, standing at an elevation of 7,533 feet.
Desert View Watchtower
A 70-foot stone tower on the Grand Canyon's South Rim, completed in 1932 to a design by Mary Colter, with murals by Fred Kabotie.
- Rank in Arizona
- #88of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 52.2 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Historic Site
Desert View Watchtower, also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View, is a 70-foot stone building on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, within Grand Canyon National Park. It stands at Desert View, more than 20 miles east of the main developed area at Grand Canyon Village and towards the east entrance to the park. The four-storey structure was completed in 1932 to a design by the American architect Mary Colter, an employee of the Fred Harvey Company who designed several other buildings in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon, among them Hermit's Rest and the Lookout Studio. The interior contains murals by Fred Kabotie.
Where it is
Desert View Watchtower is a historic site near Grand Canyon, in Coconino County. It is one of the historic sites in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
No official visitor count is published for Desert View Watchtower, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.
Sources
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
Mav at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
Eric Kilby, CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
9.0 miles away
Wotans Throne
A 7,721-foot Grand Canyon summit near Cape Royal on the North Rim, rising 5,200 feet above the Colorado and named for the god Wotan.
9.5 miles away
Grandview Trail
An 1893 miners' trail on the Grand Canyon's South Rim, descending from Grandview Point to Horseshoe Mesa past surviving mining relics.
12 miles away
Kaibab Plateau
A high plateau almost entirely within Coconino County, also known as Buckskin Mountain, Buckskin Plateau and Kaibab Mountain.
14 miles away
Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument
A national monument of more than 900,000 acres around the Grand Canyon, designated in 2023 and closed permanently to new uranium mining.
14 miles away
South Kaibab Trail
A Grand Canyon trail from Yaki Point following a ridgeline to the Colorado River, steeper and less shaded than the Bright Angel.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Historic Site
- Destination
- Grand Canyon
- County
- Coconino County
- State
- Arizona
- Designations
- National Register of Historic Places contributing property
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 52.2 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 45.1
- Significance score
- 58.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Coordinates
- 36.0439, -111.8258
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12