Watchtower Desert View VR Grand Canyon

Desert View Watchtower, Grand Canyon Village, AZ 86023, United States

The watchtower was the last of the series of Mary Colter-designed visitor concession structures at the Grand Canyon until her renovation of the Bright Angel Lodge in 1935.

The tower was designed to resemble an Ancestral Puebloan watchtower, but its size dwarfs any known Pueblan-built tower.

Link Location Gps -111.8262109

Gps Coordinates / 36.0441377,-111.8262109

The structure is composed of a circular coursed masonry tower rising from a rubble base. The base was intentionally designed to convey a partly ruinous appearance, perhaps of an older structure on which the watchtower was later built.

Link Location Gps / Gps Link -111.8259606 / Gps Link -111.8260149 / Gps Link -111.8260118

Gps Coordinates / 36.0441823,-111.8259606 / 36.0442566,-111.8260149 / 36.0439939,-111.8260118

The main space is the Kiva Room in the base structure, apparently roofed with logs that were salvaged from the old Grandview Hotel. The ceiling is a false structure concealing the roof structure that supports an observation deck.

Upper floors serve as an observation deck from which visitors to the national park can view eastern portions of the Grand Canyon.

Link Location Gps / Gps Link -111.8263022 / Gps Link -111.8261107 / Gps Link -111.8262778

Gps Coordinates / 36.0440199,-111.8263022 / 36.0441328,-111.8261107 / 36.04404,-111.8262778

The Kiva Room features a fireplace with a large picture window directly above where the chimney would ordinarily go. Smoke is drawn away through an offset, concealed flue. The room still contains its original furnishings, which are part of the historic designation.