Home | Categories | National Parks | Hotels | Site Map | Photographs | QTVR | Whats New? | More... ARIZONA Index | Introduction | Photographs | QTVR | Driving Distances | Map | Weather | Hotels Desert View, Grand Canyon National Park Sites in Arizona NPS - Landscapes Canyon de Chelly Chiricahua Grand Canyon Lake Mead Organ Pipe Petrified Forest Saguaro Sunset Crater NPS - Historic Sites Casa Grande Ruins Coronado Montezuma Castle Pipe Spring Tonto Tumacacori Tuzigoot Walnut Canyon Wupatki Other Places Apache Trail Ironwood Forest NM Meteor Crater Route 66 Sedona Sonoran Desert NM Tonto NF Vermilion Cliffs NM More Locations... Agua Fria Alamo Lake Bartlett Reservoir Beaver Dam Mnts Bill Williams River Copper Creek Coronado Trail Coyote Buttes Fish Creek Granite Mountain Kaiser Spring Kofa NWR Lees Ferry Lost Dutchman Mount Lemmon Patagonia Lake Pearce Ferry Red Rock Roosevelt Lake Sabino Canyon San Carlos Lake Superstition Mountains Sycamore Canyon Tombstone Tonto Creek Tonto Natural Bridge West Clear Creek Arizona Site Map Site Search Enter your search terms this site all the web Submit search form Grand Canyon National Park > The South Rim > Viewpoints > Desert View Looking northwest from Desert View Four miles from the national park boundary, Desert View offers the first glimpse of the Grand Canyon for visitors arriving from the east, and presents a spectacle rather different to most overlooks as one third of the panorama is of the flat plains of the Painted Desert, on the east side of the Colorado as it bends round to the north. The park road cannot follow the rim any further east as the ground falls away steeply towards Cedar Canyon, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, so the many other viewpoints are all found to the west. The facilities at Desert View include a gas station, bookstore, shop, restaurant, campground, ranger station, acres of parking and the historic watchtower, built in 1932 right on the cliff edge and visible for many miles across this part of the canyon. One trail starts nearby - a long backcountry route that crosses the Painted Desert and reaches Cape Solitude after 16 miles, directly above the Little Colorado River confluence. Views at Desert View encompass many miles of the canyon, countless peaks and tributary ravines from Shoshone Point in the west as far north as Temple & Chuar Buttes (location of an aircraft crash in 1956), then above and beyond to the distant Vermilion & Echo Cliffs that enclose the start of the Grand Canyon at Lees Ferry. Several miles of the river can be seen, around the Tanner Creek rapids, which can be reached by the Tanner Trail starting from Lipan Point. The best time for photography at Desert View is in early morning, when the sun first illuminates the cliffs opposite, on the north rim below Cape Royal. Next Points West: Navajo Point East: Comanche Point - which could be reached by a 10 mile, cross-country hike starting from Desert View Back to Top Arizona | California | Colorado | Nevada | New Mexico | Texas | Utah | Wyoming | Slot Canyons | Travelogue | SOUTHWEST

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