Desert View Watchtower

It's on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, about 20-25 miles east of Grand Canyon Village toward the East Entrance. The Desert View Watchtower, a Mary Colter-designed structure from 1932 with murals, lookout points, and sweeping views. Desert View Drive, is a scenic road along the rim with various viewpoints and overlooks. The views from Desert View are often praised as outstanding. The Watchtower offers eastern views of the canyon and river, plus wide panoramas that are less crowded than the more central Grand Canyon viewpoints. Less crowded compared to the main Grand Canyon Village rim viewpoints, Desert View tends to have fewer crowds esp If you want a somewhat more relaxed spot to enjoy sunrise/sunset without fighting the main tourist traffic.

A must-see stop at the Grand Canyon! The Desert View Watchtower offers some of the most breathtaking panoramic views of the canyon. The architecture is stunning—rich in history and beautifully designed to reflect Native American culture. Climbing to the top is totally worth it for the views alone, and the artwork inside adds so much character and meaning to the experience. It was peaceful, not overly crowded, and a great place to take photos, relax, and soak in the beauty of the canyon from a unique perspective. Whether it's your first visit to the Grand Canyon or your tenth, don’t miss this spot!

The Desert View Watchtower offers amazing panoramic views of the eastern Grand Canyon. The tower itself is full of history and unique interior design. The best surprise? A person inside demonstrating a remote-controlled R2-D2 robot — it moves, beeps, and delights both kids and adults alike! If you’re visiting the South Rim, don’t skip this spot.

A very unique landmark on the south rim of this beautiful and stunning Grand Canyon. If you get here early around 8 AM there should be no wait and no line. I had all three levels of the tower to myself. A really good energy lives in this tower. This tower is surrounded by ravens.

It was about a 45 min drive from the Grand Canyon South Rim Visitor’s Center to the Desert View Watchtower. The road has numerous spots to pull off and catch different views. Once at the Watchtower site, it took some navigation to figure out how to get down to it since several sidewalks were closed. There was a line to go upstairs, but it went pretty quickly. The views from the top are worth the wait.

Took us about a 1/2 hr to drive to the watchtower from the main South Rim entrance. The view at the bottom was lovely. We waited about 40 minutes for tickets to the watch tower (which are free and given out every 20 minutes in increments of 25). We then waited 20 minutes for our time to enter the tower. It was beautiful - filled with history of Native American civilization, gorgeous views of the Grand Canyon and many photo opportunities. Once up, they do not make you come back down before the next people go up. We stayed about 30 minutes, which was a good amount of time to get pictures and sit peacefully taking everything in. Well worth the wait.

This park offers multiple easily-accessible gorgeous viewpoints of the Grand Canyon and the Desert View Watchtower. I highly recommend stopping here. Unfortunately the top of the watchtower was un accessible for all tourists. This area had plenty of parking, and multiple handicap accessible lookout views of the canyon. A few simple food and merchandise buildings within walking distance of the viewpoints. A couple pathways and bathrooms were out of service.

Second time I visit this place, and probably not the last. Outstanding views of the grand canyon. Specially for the sunrise. In order to get to the top of the watchtower, you need to pay. But is worth it. If not, you can walk arround and find lots of different spots to watch the canyon and all its sights.