North Rim of Grand Canyon Van Camping

Original Trip Description: (July 16-23, 1994)
Experience the scenic grandeur and isolation of the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Starting in Las Vegas, Nevada, we will travel by van to visit many of Bob's favorite haunts on the Kaibab Plateau. The North Rim has less than 5% of the South Rim's visitation and is relatively free from annoying summer crowds. We'll travel the Rim backroads from Marble Canyon to Toroweap, camp primarily in primative rimside campsites, sleep under the stars, and help prepare scrumptious group meals.
The attractions of interest include: seven days in pristine alpine meadows and virgin forests at the 9000+ feet elevation; the conventional Canyon views from, Imperial Point, Angels Window, Point Sublime, Toroweap Overlook and the North Rim Lodge; dayhikes on abandoned trails to seldom visited Marble Canyon overlooks, the Powell Plateau, the Rainbow Plateau, and as many other scenic vistas as time permits.
Camping, sightseeing, and dayhiking will be our primary activities. This trip is rated leisurely to moderate (L/M).
Originates @ Las Vegas, NV.

Mount Hayden

Toroweap Overlook

Trip Report:

We got everyone out of Tinsel Town financially intact and headed for less populated places. Our first stop was Pipe Springs National Monument. We spent a couple of hours there having lunch and checking out the historic fort. We had our first campsite at Marble Canyon Overlook to ourselves except for two young men from the mid-west. We invited them for dinner but they joined us only for apple pie. Our new four burner propane stove arrived just in time for the trip and was extremely popular with the entire group. No more pumping and cursing! Laverne celebrated her 71st birthday mid-trip and we made a Dutch oven cobbler complete with candles and champagne. We saw quite a bit of wildlife but by the last day, we were still in quest of the North Rim's illusive wild turkey. Denise taught Laverne to gobble and both of them practiced daily trying to call in our bird. Finally after we'd given up all hope, leaving Toroweap on our last day, two wild turkeys crossed the road right in front of us.

All but Laverne saw white tailed Kaibab squirrels repeatedly from day one. It took quite a bit of looking and shouting to locate one for her but she finally did see one. On the gravel logging roads we learned where the expression "high tailing" comes from. We had frequent close calls with small rodents who held their tails high while dashing across. When we arrived at Point Sublime, and later at Toroweap, we camped with a young French Canadian couple, Frank and Marie Jose, from Quebec, Canada. They joined us for dinner and we taught them to play Hearts. I guess we taught them too well as Frank won both evenings we camped together. From our Pt. Sublime campsite we located the eleven windows of an Anasazi granary complex that has eluded us in past years. We didn't have time to explore it on this trip but are determined to go back. A few years ago three of us searched high and low in vain for this complex for the better part of a day.

The North Rim elevations around 9000' assured us of seeing many beautiful wildflowers. Magnificent thunderheads soared into the sky each afternoon, sometimes resulting in brief, intense afternoon rainstorms. The gravel logging roads were in good shape but never-the-less we were able to flatten a tire on the second day. This made Bob somewhat nervous because the repair appeared to be less than satisfactory. Fortunately, no further tire damage was done even on the extremely rough, ungraded Pt. Sublime road. Toroweap was much warmer but the views were terrific and a developed spring that Bob knew about allowed all of us to have daily showers and plentiful water within walking distance of the campground.