FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Dry Park Lookout

A 120-foot Aermotor fire tower on the Kaibab National Forest, built in 1944 and registered in 1996; current staffing and access not found.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor tower, 120 feet tall, with a groundhouse and support buildings established in 1936The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,710 ft (2,655 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
36.45234, −112.23787
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-dry-park

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 3.3 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. 1936 BuiltGroundhouse and support buildings established; NPS record for the Dry Park Lookout Cabin and Storage Sheds gives 1936 as its significant yearSources: nhlr.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  2. 1944 BuiltCurrent Aermotor tower built, replacing an earlier tower from the 1930sSource: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1944 and 1996
  4. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 30, 1996 as US 198, AZ 6Source: nhlr.org
  5. 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.

Dry Park Lookout stands in Coconino County, Arizona, on the Kaibab National Forest, at about 8,710 feet.1 The National Historic Lookout Register calls its Aermotor tower, which stands 120 feet tall, the tallest fire tower on the forest.1

The current tower was built in 1944 and replaced an earlier tower from the 1930s.1 Earlier, in 1936, a groundhouse and support buildings were established at the site, and the register says those buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.1 The National Park Service keeps a record for the Dry Park Lookout Cabin and Storage Sheds, filed under a multiple listing called National Forest Fire Lookouts in the Southwestern Region, which gives 1936 as its significant year.2 That record may describe the same groundhouse, though neither source says so directly.1,2

The site was registered on December 30, 1996, as US 198, AZ 6. David Lorenz, the Arizona registrar, and John Hanson, a Kaibab National Forest archaeologist, nominated it.1

Wikidata gives the elevation as 8,707 feet, a few feet below the register's figure.3 A firelookout.org index lists the tower as standing.4

The sources I could read do not say whether the tower is staffed now, or whether visitors may climb it or stay in the groundhouse. The register names the North Kaibab Ranger District as a cooperator, so that district is the best place to ask.1

  1. Dry Park Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/dry-park-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Dry Park Lookout Cabin and Storage Sheds, National Park Service NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/6e0499bf-db6e-4eec-8a8b-9d53677b14ac (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Dry Park Lookout, Wikidata, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q86925405 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Arizona Lookouts, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/az/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Dry Park Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Dry Park 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, what it is built of, 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: 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: 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: 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, status, agency, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.