FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Coconino County, Arizona

Red Butte Lookout

Early-1980s CL-100-based fire lookout on Red Butte, Kaibab National Forest, Arizona; seasonal staffing; NHLR-registered 2001.

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. Summit trail listed open; the tower is an active lookout staffed in fire season; no source says visitors may climb the cab

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
1.25 miles one way, from the trailhead at the end of Forest Road 340A; the register gives 1.5 miles
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingModified USFS CL-100 plan; 14 by 14 foot cab with tinted windows, roof overhang, metal catwalk and two cisternsThe design: CL-100
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1980
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,206 ft (2,196 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Coconino County, Arizona
Coordinates
35.82050, −112.08880
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-az-red-butte

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 3.1 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. 1913 EventMay 1913 plan for a telephone line to Red Butte, to be the main fire lookout station for the Grand Canyon division of the Tusayan forestSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1913 and 1980
  3. 1980 BuiltCurrent tower built in the early 1980s; no exact year is given, so 1980 is a placeholder. Modified USFS CL-100 design with a 14 by 14 foot cab, metal catwalk and two cisternsSource: fs.usda.gov
  4. No record between 1980 and 2001
  5. 2001 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 1, 2001 as US 386, AZ 23Source: nhlr.org
  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.

Red Butte Lookout stands on a lava-capped butte on the Coconino Plateau, in Coconino County, Arizona, south of Grand Canyon National Park.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers it, and the Tusayan Ranger District is listed as a cooperator.1

A May 1913 newspaper report described a planned telephone line, about 17 miles long, running to Red Butte.3 The butte was to be the principal fire-watch station for the Grand Canyon division of the Tusayan forest.3 The sources read do not say when a tower first went up on the butte.

The tower standing there now was built in the early 1980s.2 According to the Forest Service, the design departs from its standard CL-100 plan: the cab is 14 by 14 feet, and the tower has a metal catwalk and two water cisterns.2 The register adds that the windows are tinted and the cab has a fixed roof overhang that gives shade.1

The National Historic Lookout Register registered the lookout on May 1, 2001, as US 386, AZ 23.1

The Forest Service says the lookout is manned in fire season, when it helps spot new starts, monitor smoke and relay communications.2 The trail to the summit is listed as open and runs 1.25 miles one way.2 The register gives the trail as 1.5 miles, so the two sources disagree on its length.1 From Tusayan, drive south on US Highway 64/180, turn left onto Forest Road 320, then left onto Forest Road 340, and right onto Forest Road 340A to the trailhead.2 The sources read do not say whether visitors may go up into the cab. Because it is an active, staffed lookout, check with the Tusayan Ranger District before planning a climb.

  1. Red Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/az/red-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Red Butte Trail #37, Kaibab National Forest, U.S. Forest Service (fs.usda.gov), https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/kaibab/recreation/trails/red-butte-trail-37 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Red Butte, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/red-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Red Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Red Butte 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: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · 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, status, 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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