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United States United States observation tower

Big Springs Lookout Tower

You can see 193 km from here, looking north-west.

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 193 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

83out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 193 kmFarthest ridgelooking north-west
  • 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 39Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 2,414 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

The 39 peaks you can name from here

From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.

Adams Head3,178 m · 149 km · northBryce Point2,531 m · 114 km · northPowell Point3,111 m · 128 km · northMount Logan2,393 m · 83 km · westSignal Peak3,160 m · 131 km · north-westAltar of Sacrifice2,287 m · 93 km · north-westHorse Ranch Mountain2,665 m · 122 km · north-westCedar Mountain2,784 m · 131 km · north-westBrian Head3,448 m · 129 km · northLittle Creek Peak3,092 m · 145 km · north

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are in June and from September to October.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset51%
  2. Febwest2 min before the sea-level sunset48%
  3. Marwestsets on an open horizon52%
  4. Aprwest2 min before the sea-level sunset57%
  5. Maynorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset62%
  6. Junnorth-westsets on an open horizon74%
  7. Julnorth-westsets on an open horizon51%
  8. Augwestsets on an open horizon56%
  9. Sepwestsets on an open horizon71%
  10. Octwestsets on an open horizon67%
  11. Novsouth-westsets on an open horizon61%
  12. Decsouth-westsets on an open horizon48%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Big Springs Lookout Tower.

Fire lookout tower in Kaibab National Forest near Big Springs, Arizona

Big Springs Lookout Tower is an observation tower in United States, 2,414 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 193 km away, looking north-west.

39 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Signal Peak (3,160 m), 131 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.

The skies are clearest in June and from September to October.

Big Springs Fire Lookout 2016 (48938416193)
Kaibab National Forest · Public domain

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Big Springs Lookout Tower seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1named peaks within 5 kmLittle Mountain
  • 2marked trails within 3 kmUpper Lookout Canyon Trail #120, Big Spring Lookout Trail #51
  • other viewpoints within 5 km
  • cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
  • shelters and huts within 5 km
  • car parks within 3 km
  • visitor centres within 5 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • campsites within 10 km
  • places to stay within 10 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Big Springs Lookout Tower, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas10 mountains within 25 km
South Oak Points · 5.8 kmNorth Oak Points · 8.7 kmTelephone Hill · 16 kmJumpup Divide · 18 kmBridgers Knoll · 22 kmLittle Cedar Knoll · 23 kmCedar Knoll · 25 kmLittle Mountain · 25 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Big Springs Fire Lookout 2016 (48938419473)
Kaibab National Forest · Public domain

Other viewpoints nearby.

Big Springs Lookout Tower

United States

  • 83Viewyas Score
  • 193 kmFarthest ridge
  • 39Peaks in view
  • 2,414 mAltitude

Desert View Watchtower

United States · 76 km

  • 83Viewyas Score
  • 228 kmFarthest ridge
  • 17Peaks in view
  • 2,265 mAltitude

See the guide

Vermilion Cliffs

United States · 58 km

  • 66Viewyas Score
  • 96 kmFarthest ridge
  • 4Peaks in view
  • 1,746 mAltitude

See the guide

Observation Point

United States · 93 km

  • 73Viewyas Score
  • 124 kmFarthest ridge
  • 15Peaks in view
  • 1,959 mAltitude

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q4906449) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.