FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Big Springs Lookout

A 1934 steel fire tower on the Kaibab Plateau's North Rim, with a cabin added in 1959 and a 1.3-mile trail up from the cabins. Current staffing is unconfirmed.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Trail #51 and the upper parking area are open to the public. No source read says the tower itself is open to climbing; it is an active lookout.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Trail #51 is a steep 1.3-mile route from the Big Springs cabins up to the tower. The upper trailhead on Forest Road 454 has limited parking near the tower.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerSteel tower about 100 ft tall with a 7-ft square cab; wood-frame cabin at the base dating to 1959The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
7,894 ft (2,406 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
36.59350, −112.33462
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-big-springs

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.5 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1934 BuiltSteel tower erected by contractors from Kanab, UtahSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, flickr.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1959
  3. 1959 AlteredWood cabin at the base. The register says a groundhouse was added; Wikipedia says it replaced an older log cabinSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1959 and 1988
  5. 1988 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed on the National Register of Historic PlacesSource: en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, December 30, 1996Source: nhlr.org
  7. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Big Springs tower went up in 1934, built for the Forest Service by contractors from Kanab, Utah.1 It is a steel structure about 100 feet tall, with a square cab about seven feet on each side.1,2 At its base sits a wood-frame cabin.1 The register says a wooden groundhouse was added in 1959, while Wikipedia says the 1959 cabin replaced an older log one. The two accounts agree on the year but not on what the 1959 work was.3,1

The tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and the register recorded it on December 30, 1996.1,3 The forest says it has about eight active lookouts and staffs each one during fire season.2 I did not find a dated record of who has staffed Big Springs, or of any notable fire it spotted, so that part of the history is thin. The register describes the lookout as still in active use, but gives no date for that statement.3

Today the tower is reached on foot by Trail #51, a steep 1.3-mile route from the cabins up to the lookout.4 The upper trailhead is on Forest Road 454, where parking is limited.4 Seven historic cabins at the Big Springs site can be rented one at a time through recreation.gov, and reservations are typically available from May through October.5 Nothing I read says the public may climb the tower itself. It is still an active lookout, so plan around the trail and the cabins, and check with the North Kaibab Ranger District before a visit.5

  1. Big Springs Lookout Tower, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Springs_Lookout_Tower (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Big Springs Fire Lookout, Kaibab National Forest, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaibabnationalforest/albums/72157711445646023 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Big Springs Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/big-springs-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Big Springs Trail #51, Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/recreation/trails/big-springs-trail-51 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Big Springs Cabins, Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/recreation/big-springs-cabins (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Big Springs Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Big Springs Lookout
Photo: Kaibab National Forest, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: height, register numbers, dates, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: register numbers, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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