Catching up: Tuweep / Toroweep Overlook : North Rim Grand Canyon

Catching up: Tuweep / Toroweep Overlook : North Rim Grand Canyon

My friend Bob from Spokane and I had agreed to meet at Pipe Spring National Monument near Fredonia, Arizona at noon Tuesday March 28th and then head out to Tuweep via the dirt Mt. Trumbull Road off highway 389. I was all set to camp at the Pipe Spring campground, but after a couple of hours of getting beaten up by the wind, I decided to go into Kanab and get a motel for the night. It had been a while since I had a shower, and I was heading to four more days of no-shower-time, so splurging for a room was a nice treat.

I randomly drove to the Sun n’ Sands Motel. I arrived around 5pm and The manager wasn’t there, however, the housekeeper was there and she gave me a room. She told me that the manager would be back in an hour or so and I could pay then. Works for me. I checked reviews and they were pretty good, so I got my stuff out of the camper and into the room.

The housekeeper told me that not only were dogs permitted, but that they often hosted people and dogs from the nearby Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (which if you haven’t been it’s worth a visit!)

I settled in for the night and let Bob know my change of plans. It turned out that meeting in Kanab actually worked out better as Bob, who had also been campering for about a week without a shower was able to get clean in this room and we both needed some groceries. We went out for breakfast, got our supplies, gassed up, and got on the road.

I got a lot of photos of flowers on this trip, but I think this is the only one I have marked for posting. Maybe I’ll make a whole separate post on the animal paws and flowers I saw.

The Mt. Trumbull Road is about 60 miles of easy dirt to the Ranger Station.

Once you get to the Ranger Station, if they are there, it’s time for a chat and then 7 or so miles high-clearance only 4WD time. Fun!

We got set up in sites 2 & 3 and took a walk to the Overlook.

Pugsly thought it was pretty up there. Smelled good too.

An overview of our camp. Bob’s setup is behind that rock, parallel behind mine.

We had the site reserved Tuesday night, Wed night, Thurs night. Our first afternoon, while walking back from the Overlook, Bob started not feeling well. He went to his camper and only popped out near evening to tell me he was feeling worse. I walked the doggies and retired to my camper for the night.

Wednesday morning Bob felt much better. We decided that the hollandaise on his breakfast was probably to blame. Even though he felt better, we took it easy that day. It was a beautiful day, so we wandered some, and read a lot.

I found my hiding spot

and we had a beautiful sunset

The rangers told us that rain was forecast for Thursday, but the morning was fairly clear. We went on what was supposed to be a 6 mile hike that turned into an 8 mile hike. It was very enjoyable!

We saw rafters on the river far, far below. My little camera did a decent zoom job.

and I contemplated the future on the edge of the world.

The weather turned, the wind picked up and it rained off and on all evening and overnight.
We made a nice dinner of falafel and hung out in Bob’s camper for dinner. I went to my camper and the sun set. I went to go out for one last trip to the potty, and was surprised – then panicked – when I couldn’t get out of my camper door.

This happened one other time, but I was finally able to wiggle and jiggle the handle and get the door open. I thought it was a fluke. This time, no wiggling or jiggling was working. I tried pounding on the door to get Bob’s attention. In my panic, I accidentally whacked the plastic sliding door on the screen and cracked it. Ugh. I could see that his door curtain was open and hoped he looked out. But to no avail. I yelled out my window, and he replied thank goodness. Bob came over and got my spare keys from the super-secret hiding place and tried working the lock but couldn’t get the door to open from the outside either. Nothing was working. We decided that I had to take off the handle lock mechanism altogether.

It has square screws. Who uses square screws? Bob got into my truck and my tool box and found my little computer repair kit. He reminded me that I have an emergency window and he handed me the kit through that. I was able to jam the small flathead into the screws and take the mechanism off that way. Once that popped out, the door opened. The (red lower) lock had jammed and stuck me in there.

Once we unjammed it, we re-installed the lock and I promised not to use that lower lock, just the upper deadbolt.

Friday morning we packed up and left in the morning. The overnight storm had left snow on the facing butte. Beautiful, but we were concerned that we’d encounter mud and bad road on the 60+ mile drive to pavement.

The dogs weren’t amused.

Luckily, the road was fine and we had a good drive back out to pavement. We pulled over before getting on the highway and aired up our tires. Bob was heading to meet some friends to drive the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands, Utah. The WRT doesn’t allow dogs or I would have gone with them.
Instead, I decided to head back to Prescott.
Pugsly had been having more and more difficulty and I was worried about her.

3 thoughts on “Catching up: Tuweep / Toroweep Overlook : North Rim Grand Canyon

  1. The square head screws…once you have the drivers for them (4 sizes), you’ll never want to use slotted or Phillips heads again.

  2. I missed this since it was posted while I was on the WRT. Great write up. Was good to spend some time with you in that magnificent place!

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