This steel lookout tower and two-room cabin were built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Lookout towers represent the U.S. Forest Service's long-standing commitment to fire detection and control.
In the first years after the Forest Service was established in 1905, fire guards patrolled the forest on horseback. The earliest form of lookout structure was simply a platform mounted on a tree. The fire guard would climb the tree, spot the fire and then report it. Eventually, permanent stations such as this one were established.
Grandview Lookout Tower is located approximately 10 miles east of the Tusayan Ranger District Office. Take FR 302 east from Highway 64/180, just south of the town of Tusayan. Follow FR 302 for about 15 miles to its junction with FR 310. Turn left onto FR 310 and the lookout tower will soon appear on your right. The gravel and graded dirt roads are suitable for passenger vehicles.
This site is now a trailhead for the Arizona Trail. When Grandview Lookout Tower was originally built in the 1930s, it was a particularly active period for lookout tower construction, and most of the tall steel towers still in use today date from that period.
Steel towers, the "cabs" in which the lookout sits, and the associated residential cabins were built to standard architectural plans. Grandview Lookout Tower is typical of other towers built during that era. The tower is 80 feet tall, and the cab is 7 feet square.