AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I find it hard to believe that's all the photos you took. My version of this day alone is going to have 100+ photos from just me! haha

 

Ah just what I needed to kill the morning hours at the office

 

Glad you're enjoying - this was definitely a fun day and Toroweep is amazing. Saw your trip report as well and flagged it for reading - will have to check it out today!

Hahahahaha, I have so many more pictures from this day, I really had to filter it down for the actual story. I like to keep the count between 50-70, just so that there's a good balance of text/photos. Toroweep too I realized is really hard to capture in a photo - the adrenaline of being right on the edge doesn't really come through.

LOL, .

 

hoping the video i took sort of shows it. But I know it wont.

Yeah I used to do that too. More fun the other way

 

Did you get the story?

I have been following, but not posting.

 

The helicopters are typically for picking up and dropping off river trip clients. Whitmore is kind of the midpoint of the canyon, and a lot of the commercial outfits offer trips down either the upper or lower gorges. When I was in Boy Scouts, we took a river trip down the lower gorge until just above Lake Mead and had a blast. The best part by far was the helicopter ride from the ranch across the plateau and then down into the canyon to drop us off. So much fun.

 

the amount of aircraft spotted on this trip was insane. Looked like a fun thing to do. Id pay for a heli tour of the GC easily. Especially with that guy flying!

 

Epic trip! So it seems I can make it to Whitmore Canyon with my Prerunner with patience and good tires.

 

Yep, as Jason mentioned, it was river rafters just finishing their trip through the canyon. We ran into the pilot at the Bar 10 Ranch, and he had seen our trucks as well, so it was a great opportunity for each of us to complement the other!

Definitely. I think that everywhere we went along the north rim, was reachable with two wheel drive.

 

How many gas cans did you have to use for the section from St. George to Kanab? I was trying to plan out a similar route last year but could not figure it out without bringing 20 extra gallons to be safe.

 

F.U.Rain Day 4 - And So It Begins...
October 2, 2018.

It rained on and off throughout the night - not too bad, actually when it comes right down to it. The rain stopped by early morning, though a cloud cover remained, allowing me a second reprieve from an early-morning to capture sunrise. It was 8:00am by the time I pulled myself out of the tent, Mike @Digiratus also up, getting his coffee started.

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A bowl of Cheerios in my hand, I ventured to the edge of the canyon - it's reds and oranges now deeper from the overnight rain. The dramatic clouds causing a flat-if-not-a-bit-ominous light.

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We poked around for a while, knowing that the tents would go away wet, but hoping we could change that to "damp" if we let them air out a while. But, we had a long day of driving ahead, so it wasn't long before we dried out the best we could and folded the tents up, hoping the evening would be warm and the rain would be gone so that everything would dry out by the time we crawled into bed.

Oh, and with no chance to refuel the previous day, and another overlook to hit before heading to town, we'd need our spare fuel - 10 gallons each - so before heading out, we transferred it from our jerry can's to our fuel tanks, Monte @Blackdawg and Mike racing with their spouts; both teasing me about the (slow) speed of my siphon. But, I'm still a fan of the siphon, even if this time I did manage to pull it out of the neck of the gas tank, spilling gas all over the side of my truck! Doh!

Tanks replenished, we were ready to go. Out of camp and back on the curvy road we'd sped down the night before, we had a blast, stopping only once along the finger that is SB point to capture the canyon as we headed onto the plateau.

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Away from the canyon and back on the flat, the sky may have been dreary, but the landscape was as vibrant as ever - the water having scrubbed the dust from foliage, and pollution from the air. As we made our way east toward Kanab Point, we took it all in - reveling in the nearly dustless roads as we went.

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We made good time, and it was only 11:00am when we reached Kanab Point - really, a series of four points with views of the Grand Canyon. As usual, we couldn't explore just one and so it was that we got out of the trucks to see just what the first overlook had to offer. Photos can never really capture something as large as the canyon in any way that convey's it's magnitude, but we were all once again stunned as we tried to make out which of the deep ravines was the main channel and marveled at the erosive forces of water all around us.

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And then we were off to what turned out to be the main overlook at Kanab Point. Mike was the first to roll up, and over the CB he let us know that it was a "Top-of-the-World" situation. Excited as ever to lean out over nothingness, Monte and I headed over. It wasn't quite as we'd expected, but we lined up anyway and took it all in once again - definitely no complaints from us!

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The views of the Grand Canyon here were great too - helped by a few breaks in the clouds that let a bit more sunlight down into the crevices. But still, there was no way to capture the vastness.

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And with that, we checked out the remaining overlooks. One of them was right on a finger - a cool view to see the rim of the canyon and it's crumbling boulders just a few steps ahead - for now, but not forever. And in the distance, the layers of rock, eroded over millions of years.

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Kanab Point explored as much as we could in the overcast weather, we piled back into the trucks for the 60-mile run into town. We'd been nearly three days without a re-fuel, and it was time to get everything filled up again - Mike's Redhead especially thirsty. A few parting shots and we were off!

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The drive was one that we were now becoming accustomed to - north up the finger of the Canyon, and then across the plateau to the next road east - along the entire north rim by the time we were done, we hoped. In and out of the National Park and Monument, private land and fences (for cattle) also crossed the landscape. And here, in the middle of nowhere, when possible, roads were straight.

Straight for very long distances.

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Eventually as we neared town, the trees gave way to plains of grass and scrub, the road widening and the impact of civilization becoming more clear. Still, the shadows of the trucks trying to come out, it was a beautiful day to be out of a drive.

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We fueled up in Fredonia - not the cheapest gas in the world as Monte seemed to constantly remind us throughout the trip - this time made worse due to our need to also refill our additional 10 gallon reserves. It was a bit after noon, and as we pulled out of the gas station, I suggested that we eat lunch once we got out of town and back on dirt.

Everyone agreed (though there was some disagreement on how far away dirt was - for some reason, Mike and Monte thought it was much closer than I did) and we carried on. Then, as we headed southeast, rain. Not just a little rain either - this was serious, truck-washing rain.

"And so it begins." said Monte over the CB, followed shortly by "F*ck you rain." It wouldn't be the last time.

Eventually we got to dirt, and being hungry, we decided to make sandwiches as quickly as we could in the downpour. Two of us at least - Mike got all his supplies out in the cab and made his sandwich there, dry. As we ate, a USFS (Forest Service) truck passed us - leaving us to wonder where it was headed.

It wasn't long before we left ourselves - no leisurely lunch for us given the rain - up the trail towards Jump Up Point.

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The rain still falling hard, the road was in significantly worse shape than any other we'd traveled so far, it's steepness likely contribution to the erosion. And then, a problem.

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The road was closed. We weren't sure if it was the USFS truck that had passed us just moments ago, or if the road had been closed for weeks, but we were kicking ourselves for taking the lunch break - we might have made it if we hadn't dallied for those few minutes. In the end, we headed back down and consulted our maps - hoping that we'd find another way to the point that wouldn't take us too far out of our way, since we knew our fuel situation was again going to be tight.

As we headed toward the single road we'd found - up and over "Little Mountain" - the road surface starting to show signs of saturation, our alternate climbed up into the trees, and we hoped this route wouldn't share the same fate as the last.

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As we neared the top of Little Mountain, the path forward became way less clear. Monte'd head one way, only to have me call out over the CB, "I think the trail went this (other) direction." In fact, parts of the trail clearly hadn't been driven for years - dead-fall and regrowth blocking the path.

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As we headed back down the other side - our confidence growing that our reroute would be successful, we wound our way through low tree branches, trying to avoid the ham radio antenna's as much as possible. Unfortunately, that meant that Monte missed a branch coming in from the side, which nailed his driver door pretty good.

Hopefully, .

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And then, we reached the other end of our reroute - we were now back on track to Jump Up Point, now just hoping that there'd be a break in the downpour where we could setup (and climb into) our tents.

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It was during this time that - with the roads saturated - the mud started. Now, a little dirt on the trucks is pretty normal, and we didn't think much of it - little did we know that it was just the beginning.

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And then, miraculously, as we made our way out this next finger of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the sun started to break through the clouds. The constant rain became intermittent, and then - a rainbow between the canyon and our trucks!

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All this just as we got our first real glimpses of the rim of the canyon and the views beyond. The first "sunny" views we'd seen in a while - a welcome sight to our eyes after such a wet afternoon. Despite "the look" from Mike (you know, the one that says "We need to get to camp before dark"), we stopped to take it in.

Several times.

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It was as though every few hundred feet we drove, there was another amazing view. Of course, they were all of the same thing, just from different angles and with different light. It's my hope that such minorly different sights continue to amaze me for years to come, because it's so fun to get to the edge and know, "I already have this shot, but I need to take it again."

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Only a little after 5:00pm, we ran out of road - we'd reached Jump Up Point after a slog through rain and mud. Now this was a view. I mean sure, there were still some clouds - but they seemed to be clearing and the ground was drying out. There was plenty of room at the edge of the rim for two trucks, and a fire ring a little ways back.

We got ourselves situated.

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We made dinner and started the camp fire. The clouds continued to clear. The breeze- especially on the edge of the rim where Monte and I had parked - picked up; a good thing in my mind to dry out the tent. In all, it was shaping up to be a really nice evening.

We wondered - would the sun ever poke through the clouds on the horizon? If it did, we'd get a good show, we were sure. Regardless, we hoped that the next morning would bring an amazing sunrise over the canyon.

In the end, the sun did poke through the clouds just a bit that night. It was short and fleeting, and the colors were splashes here and there as opposed to paintings across the sky, but we enjoyed them all!

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Eventually, a purple hue, and then it was done.

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The light gone, I made tacos with fresh guacamole (as though the guacamole Mike had made with his salsa wasn't enough) and ate them around the camp fire. Monte and Mike had their dinners as well - steak and corn for Mike, and sausage with green onions for Monte.

As the temperature dropped, we stoked the fire and kept the conversation going as long as we could - not as late as the first night, but later than the previous - finally calling it a night at midnight. As we climbed up into our tents and the wind picked up, we all hoped the next day would bring back the sun and warmth, and maybe - fingers crossed - a grand sunrise over the Grand Canyon.

But for now, I put in my earplugs and fell fast asleep, the wind rocking the tent, hanging out on the edge of the canyon.

 

20 is overkill unless your out of country. 10 is plenty. Rarely have we pushed the boundaries of 10 extra.

 

We each had 10 gallons of extra fuel for that leg, and we needed all 10 (well to be fair, Mike needed all 10 and Monte and I probably could have gotten by with 5). It's a long stretch for sure, and we added the spare fuel at SB Point - but we had a couple things going for us: the roads, while dirt, allow for mostly higher speed travel - there wasn't a lot of slow speed line picking or terrain crawling. Also, the roads weren't wet and muddy, which would have also significantly reduced our mileage.

When we filled up in Fredonia (we never technically went to Kanab), I put in 21.0 gallons (to the tank + refill the 10 gallon Jerry cans), and averaged 12.4 mpg on the leg from St. George to Fredonia.

I'm lucky enough to have a very flexible work schedule.

 

Gotcha, thanks!

I think I was actually basing it off of driving on dirt from Nevada with an additional overlook at the beginning so it pushed the distance a bit more, but it's good to know that most of what you did was faster pace dirt. I need to do that first leg considering it's practically in my backyard...

 

I say it again & again. Great Pictures & story telling. You should be published.

 

Amazing

 

Excellent thread! Not to mention your last adventure post is incredible.

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is my absolute favorite place in the world. I was just there and I can't wait to go out again.

 

You'll love it for sure - it's a beautiful place, I really wish we'd been able to spend more time there. A few things to do next time (or for you to do when you go):

• At Whitmore Overlook, hike down to the Colorado River - it's a relatively short (but steep) hike; I bet it's amazing down there.
• Spend more time exploring Toroweep. There's a campground there, which is paid/permitted since it's in the park, but it's gotta be a very cool place to explore
• Explore the petroglyphs between Whitmore and Toroweep.

Have fun!

Thanks so much guys. Super fun doing all this stuff, and reliving it with everyone as I post it. Can't wait to get back myself.

 

F.U.Rain Day 5 - Amazing Aspen and Electrical Storms
October 3, 2018.

It was a breezy (but dry!) night on the edge of the canyon, the updrafts from the walls constantly buffeting the fabric of the tent. Little did we know that we were in for much, much worse!

But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The breeze did help to clear out the clouds a bit by early morning, and knowing that we could have a spectacular view, I'd set my alarm for "before sunrise" - to try and catch that orange glow that I love on the horizon.

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I'd also put the camera in the tent with me, so it was oh-so-nice to snap a few shots while cozy under the covers (balancing the camera on the spare tire), and then curl back up for another hour of sleep! Of course, that sleep was restless - having seen the orange, I knew that as the sun rose, it would light up the sky - so eventually I gave in and climbed out of the tent.

Totally worth it.

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Lucky as I was to experience this, I could see in the distance that cloud cover was on its way. Now, it was a race between the sun and clouds - would we get any sun on the trucks? On the walls of the Grand Canyon? Monte @Blackdawg was clearly wondering the same thing as he climbed out of his tent - the earliest I'd see him all trip!

And then, the sun poked through. It was a fleeting moment, and it barely lit the canyon, but the long orange rays spilled over the trucks in all their glory.

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And with that, the clouds moved in. We were bummed to not have a longer display in the canyon, but still - it was a nice way to greet the day...for two of us. Realizing that Mike @Digiratus wasn't awake yet, Monte headed over to his tent and climbed the ladder - "For a better angle!" he joked as Mike woke enough to push him off.

We all set about with breakfast and camp tear down as the sun struggled to peak through the clouds again.

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Eventually, everything put away and us ready to go, the sun started to win it's battle against some of the clouds, finally lighting up the canyon a brilliant maroon.

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With that, we were off! With only a couple more days along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we wondered what today's views would bring. Little did we know that the highlight might not be views of the canyon at all!

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Our journey began - as usual - by retracing the last of our steps from the evening before. Back to the main road, under the sun - the clouds breaking up above us, the blue sky beckoning us forward. Even better, the bit of rain we'd gotten the day before was helping to keep the dust down - allowing us to stay closer together as we made good time.

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So it was that by 10:30am - a time when we might normally just be heading out of camp - we were already many miles into our day, already having made a turn east towards our next destination. As we continued forward and climbed in elevation, the landscape around us changed. Gone were the Junipers and high-desert scrub that we'd mainly driven through to this point; oaks, and then a mix of oaks and pine covered the hills all around us.

And it was fall. And they were colorful!

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This was definitely not what any of us thought of when we thought of the Grand Canyon, and it was hard to continue to make good time on this section of road - the views so different than what we'd experienced thus far. So we didn't, for a while. In fact, it was so nice and our pace was such that I even decided it was time to change into shorts - something I was sure wouldn't happen again for the remainder of the trip after our rainy encounter the day before.

Eventually of course, we continued on - having a blast, or should I say blasting - through the remains of yesterday's weather.

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As we continued to climb in elevation, the foliage changed again. The oaks slowly gave way to a majority Pine forest, and then then we hit our first grove of Aspen.

Wow.

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It was as though someone had taken the brightest yellow paint available, mixed it with sunlight, and spread it throughout the landscape. We were truly lucky to be here - a week before or after and we'd have missed this spectacular display!

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As had happened earlier in the morning, our pace slowed again. Dramatically. If there was a corner we turned without stopping, I don't remember it. The next two photos illustrate the problem we were having - here, Monte taking a photo looking one direction, and then turning around and realizing he needed to take a photo the other direction as well.

The only way to describe it was WOW.

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Luckily for us, we were nearly to Parissawampitts Point and so after a few more stops - how couldn't we, there was a new, red tinge to some of the Aspens! - we arrived at our destination. We'd traveled a solid 3 miles in the last hour.

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Parissawampitts Point was unlike any of the other points we'd been to on the Grand Canyon - there was no view from the trucks, instead a hike standing between us and the views. Unsure how long and how amazing the views, Mike opted to sit this one out (we did know there was quite a bit of elevation change on the hike) while Monte and I made our way to the point. The highlight of the hike, as with our drive, were the fall colors - the actual view from the point being a bit "meh" given our previous experiences along the rim.

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In all, it was a good 45-minute round trip, and by the time we were back, Mike was enjoying lunch by the trucks. We quickly got ours together as well and ate them as we related the high-and-low-lights of the hike to Mike. And then, we were back in the trucks on our way to Kanabownits Lookout.

But not for long - the same distraction that had stopped us in our tracks before lunch rearing it's crazily amazing head once again. Aspens.

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This time the grove was relatively small, so we were able to get back underway before the sun set for the evening! [smile id=rofl"] Then, as we headed through the woods, Monte came over the CB radio to let us know that "We've got a problem." The problem was obvious - there was a bunch of four, 8-10" trees down over the road; we weren't going anywhere until they were cut out of the way. So, I pulled out the trusty Stihl MS261 chainsaw and got to work parting out the trees while Monte hauled them out of the way.

Trees cleared (but not the last we'd hear about them), it wasn't long before we reached the Kanabownits Lookout, and headed up the stairs - unfortunately to a locked door, limiting our exploration of the lookout itself.

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Back down the stairs we went, now our only remaining stop the place we'd call camp for the night - Point Sublime. This was, we'd heard, one of the more dramatic vistas on the North Rim, so we hoped we'd have it to ourselves; unsure given it was a Friday evening of a holiday weekend.

As we made our way out the finger, we quickly realized we were in for a treat. Views off the side of the finger were spectacular - even in the harsh light - and we made a mental note to stop by the next morning to take advantage of the light then.

Not that we didn't capture it now too, of course!

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We also noted that there were a few camp sites along this route - a nice fallback if the point itself was already occupied. And then we came to a narrow section of road that separated the last half-mile of the finger from the rest of the rim. Perhaps 20-feet wide, this section of road had been built up at some point to allow vehicle traffic.

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And, for anyone crazy enough to jump from the wall to a freestanding rock outcropping, an amazing view of the canyon. Yes please - Monte and I quickly hopped over the crevas, much to Mike's dismay!

So worth it.

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We were getting on 4:30pm now, so one of us was antsy to get to camp, and we were all anxious to see what Point Sublime itself had to offer, so we made great time to the end of the road - where we ran into a group of Polish adventurers in their rental Jeep, enjoying the view and afternoon sun.

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Oh well, we'd seen a more sheltered camp not too far back, so after exchanging stories - the Polish group had been turned around by the four trees we'd cleared! - we headed a quarter mile back up the point to setup camp.

As we positioned vehicles, Monte discretely pulled his truck under a tree across the road from Mike and I. "Whatcha doing over there?" I asked. "I figure this will help if it hails." replied Monte - a good point given that the weather alerts we'd been hearing on the ham radio warning of two storm cells containing lightning, thunder, and half-dollar sized hail!

Soon, we were all positioned under trees.

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To our east, a storm cell - though, quite obviously not one of the large ones!

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As we watched the passing storm and rainbow, contemplating what to do before dinner, a rumbling in the distance - not thunder, no - an engine. We peered down the road, wondering not just who could be coming, but also where they were planning to camp.

Turned out to be an older couple, golf cart in tow. Not planning to camp here, luckily for us (and, in all honesty, them!)

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We poked around for a while more, Monte and I holding off on tent deployment until the very last moment - the threat of weather top of mind, until Mike called out to us - "Hey guys, you're going to miss sunset."

I don't know what we were thinking, but Mike was right. Sunset on Point Sublime was likely to be amazing, and we had less than 5 minutes to make it the quarter mile from our site to the point. We set off at a jog, snapping a couple photos along the way in case we were too late.

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We made to it the point just in the nick of time. Probably a little later than we'd have liked, but it was still a sublime sunset (ba dum tss), the rays of the sun sparkling along he horizon, the clouds illuminating from behind - everything from bright yellow to deep purple.

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We took it all in, and then looked at each other and said - at almost the same time - "uh oh." We'd both seen the same thing - across the Grand Canyon, but moving directly for us, a huge storm cell. This one wasn't going to pass by us on the east or west - it was going to pass right overhead. And it was approaching quickly.

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We hustled back to the top of Point Sublime and let the Polish group know that they should batten down the hatches, relaying what we'd heard about lightning and hail, and telling them that if the lightning got close, they should climb in their Jeep - so exposed were they on the point.

And then, just as the first drops hit the ground, we started running back to camp. Of course, we weren't fast enough to stay dry - not by a long shot - but we did beat the worst of the storm cell back, and we huddled under Mike's awning for 45-minutes while it passed overhead; rain pummeling camp.

And we counted the seconds between lightning and thunder - thankfully, no closer than 8-9 seconds - a bit over a mile away.

As the rain let up, headlights came down the road - the Polish adventurers had had enough - they were headed out, hopefully away from any remaining storm cells - each of us wishing the others well on the remainder of our trips.

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It was only then that Monte and I setup our tents and gathered around the propane fire pit Mike had brought for evenings inside the National Park (no wood fires allowed there!) Dinner was quick for all of us, wary were we of additional rain - but we were lucky and the rain held off as long as we were awake - nothing more falling over camp by 11:00pm or so when we called it a night.

But our luck would hold out much longer. By midnight the wind had picked up significantly. 40-mph gusts buffeting our tents. Rain, blowing sideways.

And then, at 2:12am - lightning, and a lot of it. But now we're onto day 6, so that part of the story will just have to wait...

 

Thank you for including us on your trip. I feel like I am right there with you guys.