FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

North Rim Lookout

75-ft Aermotor built 1928 at Bright Angel Point, moved 1933 to North Rim Lookout; now inactive; NHLR-registered 2009; NPS-administered per register.

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, 75-ft tower with 7x7 cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1928
Height
75 ft (22.9 m)
Elevation
9,165 ft (2,794 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
36.33059, −112.10168
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-north-rim

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 3.2 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. 1928 Built75-ft Aermotor tower with 7x7 cab built on Bright Angel PointSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1933 MovedMoved from Bright Angel Point to become North Rim LookoutSources: nhlr.org, dangerousroads.org
  3. No record between 1933 and 2009
  4. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on April 25, 2009Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2009 EventListing recognized at a ceremony on July 4, 2009, held with the grand opening of the North Rim Wildland Fire and Emergency Services FacilitySource: nps.gov
  6. 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.

North Rim Lookout is a 75-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab, first built in 1928 on Bright Angel Point 1. The Forest Service had already put a wooden lookout platform on that point before Grand Canyon National Park was created in 1919 2. Later, the Park Service replaced those platforms with steel towers at Bright Angel and Hopi points 2. In 1933 the 1928 tower was moved to its current summit site and became North Rim Lookout 1,3.

The park's early managers were worried about finding and fighting fires from the 1920s through the 1960s 2. According to the register, the tower has stopped serving as a fire detection post 1. The pages read here name no single fire at this tower. A travel guide says Edward Abbey worked as a seasonal fire lookout here in the late 1960s and 1970s 3.

The National Park Service calls all four of its Grand Canyon lookout towers on the register inactive 2. The register listed this one on April 25, 2009 1, and the listing was recognized at a ceremony on July 4, 2009 2.

The summit is reached by an unpaved road that a travel guide says needs a high-clearance 4x4 3. The same guide says the road is not plowed in winter 3. These sources do not confirm current public access. The register and the Park Service place the tower in Grand Canyon National Park 1,2, while the travel guide puts it within the Kaibab National Forest 3. This story follows the register's reading.

  1. North Rim Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/north-rim-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Four Grand Canyon National Park Lookout Towers have been listed on the National Historic Lookout Register, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/cynsk-v13.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. How to drive the unpaved road to North Rim Lookout in Arizona, Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/8199-north-rim-lookout.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of North Rim Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.