The Arizona Strip- the section of Arizona that is north of the Grand Canyon and is cut off geographically from the rest of the state. It covers approximately 1 million acres of remote plateaus, plains, mountains, cliffs, and canyons. It’s a strange transition zone where the Mohave Desert, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau connect. And it’s a wonderful piece of real estate where all visitors must respect the remote location, lack of water, and absence of facilities. But for those willing to brave these challenges, it’s a unique land with a startling array of plant, animal, geologic, and cultural resources. Route finding in this area is extremely complex, an Off Road Trail Guide and Off Road GPS are strongly recommended.
Marble Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs
The trip begins passing over Marble Canyon on the Navajo Bridge. On the west side there’s a visitor center with indoor and outdoor exhibits explaining the history of the area. Also, you can walk out on the old bridge (834 feet long and 470 feet above water) that spans the canyon.
From here, and along Highway 89 towards the North Rim, you can observe the striking, sheer red and purple cliffs that dominate the view to the north.
These are the Vermilion Cliffs, and the area was recently made into a National Monument. Besides the towering cliffs, deep canyons and remote wilderness areas await the hardy traveler. This is also a prime California condor viewing area.
Bright Angle Point
High of the Kaibab Plateau, after heading south from Jacob Lake, you'll get to the Grand Canyon entrance station. At the end of the road, near Grand Canyon Lodge, you can follow the paved foot trail to the tip of Bright Angel Point. John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition camped at the mouth of this canyon, and Powell later gave the name Bright Angel Creek to its crystal-clear waters.
The grand lodge of stone and logs was built in 1937. The patio, Sun Room, and dining area are all popular gathering places. In the Sun Room you'll see a bronze statue of the famous burro "Brighty of the Grand Canyon," along with photos and stories about him. Rumor has it you can rub his nose for good luck.
Point Sublime
West of Bright Angel Point at the end of an 18-mile dirt road negotiable by high-clearance vehicles lies the appropriately named Point Sublime. This vista extends far into the Grand Canyon for awesome views to the east, south, and west. You can scan a great length of both North and South Rims and spot a section of Colorado River. The route is a bumpy 2.0 and not always passable when wet, but you will pass through aspen, fir, pine, spruce, ferns, meadows, and basically some of the most beautiful alpine terrain in Arizona.
Cape Royal Drive
This paved road begins about three miles north Bright Angel and leads to some of the North Rim's most spectacular viewpoints. You could easily spend a full day exploring the overlooks and hiking the short trails. Round trip to Cape Royal from the lodge is about 45 miles.
Point Imperial is the Grand Canyon’s highest vantage point by road with an elevation of 8,803 feet. Views include impressive formations in the park's eastern region. To the north you can spot the Colorado gorge before it opens up and to the southeast the Little Colorado River Canyon.
At the end of the road are Cape Royal and Angels Window. An easy quarter mile trail leads to the Cape which is the southernmost viewpoint on the North Rim… and a fantastic panorama. Angels Window, a massive natural arch, has a short trail on top of it. Good views of geologic formations like Vishnu Temple and Wotans Throne abound.
Hack Canyon
This is a tributary of Kanab Canyon, which itself is the largest side canyon with the Grand Canyon. Hack Canyon offers both great scenery —it’ll feel like you're driving into the Grand Canyon— and access to the Kanab Creek Wilderness via a trailhead at the end of the road. The trail itself is a fairly easy 2.0 with some powdery soft spots. The turnoff from County 109 is about 30 miles southwest of Fredonia. Head east and you'll see the headwall of Hack Canyon on the left after a mile or so. Once past this dry waterfall drop-off, you’ll descend and follow the canyon bottom with ever higher and grander walls on each side.
About halfway to the trail head lies the Hack Mine which produced uranium. There are still some structures still standing, mine but very little traces of it operations remains today.
Toroweap
There didn’t appear to be any canyon nearby, but as the sun dropped and we drove the curvy, rocky road south to its end, there suddenly seemed to be some sort of gap between us and the cliffs in front of us. As we emerged onto the point, things abruptly became clear… with virtually no warning, the ground vanished and plunged deep in a breathtaking, spectacular gorge of cliffs, color and water.
This remote area of the North Rim is about 20 miles west of Kanab Canyon. The overlook (elev. 4,552 feet) provides awesome Canyon views from sheer cliffs nearly 3,000 feet high above the river. Toroweap (also known as Tuweap or Tuweep) lies about 70 miles southwest of Fredonia. The route is a decent, graded road with some sections of washboard. About 5 miles out from Toroweap the road worsens into a solid 2.0 and has 2.5 sections at the very end.
Although the area is in Grand Canyon National Park, no entry or campground fees are currently charged. As you get close to the overlook, the immediate area is Sedona-like in its reddish, slick rock quality. The campground is about a mile before the overlook, and is backed by low cliffs with good views. No facilities other than outhouses, so don’t expect a lot of people.
There are three prominent foot trails in the vicinity: Saddle Horse Canyon Trail, Esplanade Trail, and Lava Falls trail. These showcase the rich volcanic history here, where eruptions once built dams across the river. One dam is said to have been over 2000 feet high, but the Colorado washed it away long ago.
The overlook itself is on a sheer drop-off. You can scramble rocks either way for varying views. Across the chasm is the Hualapai Indian Reservation. Lava Falls, about 1.5 miles downstream, roars with a vengeance. Toroweap Point (6,393 el.) towers in the northeastern horizon. Vulcan’s Throne (5,102 el.), the 600-foot-high rounded cinder cone west of the overlook, is one of the youngest volcanoes in the area.
Mount Trumbull Loop
Scenic features of this volcanic region within the Grand Canyon-Parashont National Monument include Mt. Trumbull (8,028 feet) and Mt. Logan (7,866 feet). The area is covered in pinyon, juniper, and ponderosa.
Ancestral Paiute and Puebloan tribes have etched thousands of glyphs into boulders south of Mt. Trumbull at the Nampaweap Rock Art site. Once parked, walk a little over half a mile to the head of a small canyon. The petroglyphs are on the canyon's north side.
Roads of various quality zig-zag throughout and route-finding can be difficult. A couple trails straddle a large, geologically recent lava flow that you can climb up on. Near the ranger station on County Road 5 are the barely-there remains of an old sawmill from the 1930s.
Once climbing down from the higher elevations, you’ll enter Mount Trumbull townsite, a place where homesteaders came about 1918 to farm and raise cattle. Population peaked around 200–250 in the 1930s. People gradually drifted away until the last full-time resident departed in 1984. Remains of old houses stand and you can get some good photos from the roads. The old one-room schoolhouse built in 1922 had its last class in 1968. Exhibits inside tell the story of the town and its people.
Whitmore Wash
South of the Mount Trumbull ghost town, a road heads farther south into Whitmore Canyon and dead-ends at the rim of the Grand Canyon. The road is easy. Once you’ve passed a few structures and an airstrip, the road will become a solid 2.0 trail.
Lava flows from Mt. Emma in the Uinkaret Mountains form a ramp on which you basically drive deep into the Grand Canyon. At the end, a steep, three-quarter mile trail leads down to the chilly Colorado River. You can see where lava dams once crossed the river.
Hurricane Cliffs - Much of the central Arizona Strip is high elevation plateau of flatlands and low rolling hills. The major landmark is the Hurricane Cliffs, which essentially cuts the Arizona Strip into east-west halves. Formed from the Hurricane Fault, the escarpment extends over 150 miles across northern Arizona and into Utah. It is said that these cliffs represent one of the longest exposed line of cliffs in the world. Soft, dusty two-track trails criss-cross the region. Once atop the Hurricane Cliffs sweeping panoramas exist to the west.
A special thanks to Chris Jerome
(AZTacoma) for this spectacular writeup! He planned the entire
adventure which was a “once in a lifetime” expedition through the
remotest and less traveled area of Arizona.
View All photos from the North Rim and the Arizona Strip:
Parts of this expedition can be found using the 'Guide to Arizona Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails' book. Discover this and many more trails in Arizona by purchasing your own copy today! With maps, turn-by-turn directions and GPS coordinates
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 11:17 PM
by
ryangibson