Tuweep North Rim

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:59:33 -0000 (GMT)

Tuweep North Rim

First of all got up the next morning after the Zion hiking and not stiff at all! What a change from the Grand Canyon trip!

Tuweep and Toroweap are part of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is a 61 mile dirt road to this primitive NPS area through the AZ strip desert then into the mountains. It is south of Pipe Springs National Monument which is been a haven for people for centuries but was developed by the Mormons in the 1800's. The NPS has a nice tour through the old Mormon Ranch. The guide did a great job and I had heard a little about this but in talking to him on the side I found out that polygamy is alive and well in nearby Colorado City and Hal City. We learned a lot about Mormon history that I had not heard before.

In visiting with the volunteer Rangers at Pipe Springs they told us the normal North Rim south of Jacobs Landing was snowed in and would not open to around Mothers Day but told us about Tuweep on the North Rim which is south of Pipe Springs in a primitive NPS area. They had visited it a few weeks ago and said last year they had rafted down the Colorado past this area and said the Lava Bed Falls area had some of the best white water in the Grand Canyon. The best on the Colorado is above Lake Powell from what I have been told but don't know for sure.

We got parked in an RV park here on the reservation and headed out with the F-350 and for a dirt road it was not to bad. At least is did not have a lot of wash boards but did have a lot of rocks on it in areas. It still amazes me what these "E" load rated tires can take! It took about 2 hours with the last 8 miles being the worst going over slab rock. There is a ranger station just as you enter the Grand Canyon Park with one ranger and down close to the rim a primitive CG and also two sites right on the rim.

When I say on the rim I mean on the rim. The elevation here is 4600 feet and the Colorado is 3000 feet straight down and it is less than a mile across the canyon to the south side. Below are the rapids with the biggest being to the west by the Lava Bed flow where a volcano erupted many years ago and the flow dammed the Colorado until it cut through it eventually.

I was just amazed by how many people we met coming out and there were several cars when we got there. One of the camp sites on the rim was occupied by a family from Kanab, UT and he was a ham radio operator so he filled me in on all the details and said this was one of the best spots to photograph the canyon. He also told me about how scenic the southerly route through AZ was to Page and Lake Powell so we are going to pull the 5th to Lake Powell on the northerly route through UT but then take the F-350 back through Marble Canyon and the Navajo Bridge and over to Jacobs Landing on a day trip. We plan on taking a boat tour on Lake Powell and see the Rainbow Natural Bridge.

Wind blows here in the AZ strip and southwest of Zion in Utah just like South Dakota. I had a nice visit with the fellow at the gas station near Hurricane, UT and he said he had moved here from N. Utah and liked it a lot better except for the wind! In Utah you can just turn the pump on and pump! Definitely not like NV. I went to pay for it and he asked if we had gotten groceries at the store and I said no but we were planning on it. He said go get the groceries and then come back and pay for it because with a $25 grocery purchase he would take of 10 cents a gallon which got it down to $1.62 for diesel which is the second lowest of the trip that I remember. We did that, came back and paid for it! What a super guy!