Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
 


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 10-21-2019, 10:15 PM   #1
Member
 
bolty's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
Posts: 38
Grand Canyon – Parashant Trip Report

Just got back from six days at Parashant. Well worth the drive!

My wife and I usually travel alone and this trip was no exception. We knew we would often be 60 miles from pavement and further away from help. We have an inReach satellite communicator – an amazing device I highly recommend – which both satisfies our family that we re safe and allows us a way to communicate in an emergency when cell signals are wishful thinking.

For navigation inReach has what I think is a great map application, Earthmate. Just download the map for Arizona and you’re good to go. I also downloaded the Arizona Strip Map from BLM, https://www.blm.gov/basic/maps-avenza-arizona which works with the Avenza map app. Both apps have detailed maps of Parashant and I switched back and forth between them. It was great to get another opinion if I was in doubt. I also bought a paper copy of the BLM map in the St. George ranger office.

We wound up driving 350 miles on dirt, about 250 of which were very nicely graded, maybe 90 were 4WD and 10 or so were 4WD low range. The distances were long so fuel management was an issue. We drove 300 miles on dirt before we resupplied. At that point I estimate we had maybe 80 miles range left between the tank and my one fuel can. For safety’s sake that felt right to me – most everywhere is 60 miles from a gas station and if you get up some canyon it is easy to have to backtrack 20 miles.

We entered 5 miles east of Pipe Spring national Monument. There’s a gas station at Pipe Spring so top up your tank there. We also got a nice tour of the “Windsor Castle” – a Mormon fort from the 1870’s. The park rangers told a story of western clashes with native Americans and the impact of overgrazing on the environment.

Our first stop was Toroweep Campground , 60 miles down a dirt road from Hwy 389. I aired down to 35 front and 45 rear, my standard dirt road air pressure. The first 57 miles are some of the best dirt roads I’ve driven on (Roads 109 and 115). The last 3 miles are only mild 4WD. The reward is an amazing vista of the Grand Canyon with a sheer 3,000 foot drop to the Colorado River below. You must get a permit before you travel there and it is a bit of a hassle. We chose to go to the BLM office in St. George and it took about an hour to get it. There are 10 camp spots and it was mid-week…and it’s 60 miles down a dirt road… so I thought the odds were good.

The next day we drove up to a Pinyon Pine forest at 6,000 feet. The roads were mild dirt (Roads 115 and 5. We stopped at Nampaweap, a canyon with many pictographs and took a nice hike and lunch there.

That morning we broke camp and drove down a cut bench, toured an old Mormon school house and then drove out to Twin Point – another highlight (Road 5, 103). There are two roads in to Twin Point – direct and relatively good and twice as long and much rougher. We took that one. We drove down Pidgeon Canyon (1002) which had wonderful geology and plants. At the tail end of 32 mile dirt bumpy road we ran into our first 4WD low range section – a short, steep, uphill, narrow rocky stretch around a turn (1012). Enough to get your attention but nothing really serious.

Twin Point is then another 12 miles of mostly mild/bouncy dirt (1019). We were the only ones camped on this peninsula on a Friday night and we saw nobody on Saturday as we drove out. The views are amazing and there are many short hikes to still more amazing vistas.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we drove the toughest sections. I had carefully quizzed the BLM staff on road conditions. I had told them I wanted to enter at Pipe Springs and then cross over to Mesquite – a trip they called “ambitious.” They warned me of one section, not long but with rocky drop-offs (1003). The rangers said, going east to west, we would be going downhill so it would be manageable for a vehicle our size. The road before and after that part turned out to be 10 miles of low-range 4WD and the drop they warned me of was, in fact, the only part I got out to scout, place some rocks and have my wife spot my tires as I descended. It was uneventful. I can see that going uphill would be a challenge. I probably would have lowered my air pressure as much as I dared but I think our Sportsmobiles could have made it uphill as well. I would definitely recommend at least one lead short-wheelbase modified vehicle to pull you up if there were to be a problem – there’s no room to turn around and it would be a very ugly hill to back down.

There is an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous informal campsite just east of this hard section. We enjoyed a wonderful evening there and you should too.
After descending the rocky section we were low on fuel and so headed 30 miles over a mix of great/mild/low-range dirt roads (1027 and 242) to Mesquite NV where we refueled and resupplied.

We finished our trip with another 100 mile trip down 40 miles of badly paved road and 60 miles of dirt to two desert springs, Tassi Ranch and Pakoon Springs and we camped within sight of Lake Mead (113, 1213, and 111).

The BLM recommends travelling with two spare tires. My rig is set up that way normally. I did injure the sidewalls of both rear tires, enough that I will retire them to spares and get some new ones. There are a lot of rocks and I can easily see losing a tire or two. There is not a lot of soft sand so I never felt the need to lower my tire pressure for that.

There were a lot of roads that were said to be jeep-only or UTV-only which I did not attempt. Being alone has its limits. Everything I attempted was well within the limits of the Sportsmobile. I was never close to stuck and never tempted to use my locker.
Attached Thumbnails
SMB Rock.jpg   SMB Sunrise.jpg   SMB Vists.jpg  

bolty is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 12:17 AM   #2
ctb
Senior Member
 
ctb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Illinois
Posts: 817
Garage
Send a message via AIM to ctb
PERFECT report and THANKS Bolty!!! Your detail and encouragement of capability is what drives adventures for many of us here...including my wife and I....FInding out about a chance to see this beautiful country in spots few have been to is such an awesome privilege and the pay out in pure beauty is a true blessing! Thanks again and post more pics under new posts here!!
__________________
'13 MDX 'BigBlackmobeebs'
'01 Lexus 430 LS 'Luxobeebs
'20 Tacoma TRD OR 'Tacobeebs'
ctb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 04:22 AM   #3
Senior Member
 
marret's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: FL and VA
Posts: 1,941
Garage
Yes, awesome report. Thanks for the detailed info on the "roads". One of these days I plan to make it there.
__________________
Chris
2008 GMC 3500 Quigley Weldtec 4x4 Savana SMB
marret is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 09:46 AM   #4
Member
 
Adventure4Vets's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 47
Great trip report! Really appreciate the detailed information and look forward to checking out some of those spots. Roll on!
Adventure4Vets is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 11:22 AM   #5
Senior Member
 
b. rock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Evergreen, CO
Posts: 493
Nice write up. Any pics of the spot you got out to spot/rock stack?
b. rock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 12:36 PM   #6
Senior Member
 
YoTerryh's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Portland
Posts: 200
Toroweap

Thanks for sharing your trip. Very interesting, and it brings back some great memories. About 19 years ago me, my wife and our then 5-month old daughter made the trip out to Toroweap during a month-long Southwest trip. At the time we were driving a 15-passenger 2WD Dodge rental van. We had removed all the seats behind the first row passenger bench and built a bed platform inside. Our primitive camper worked well for sleeping and storing all our gear. I definitely remember some interesting drives on trip, including those last few very cautious, slow miles out to Toroweap.

It was a fantastic trip and though I've returned to the Southwestern US roughly every 3 years since, I've never been back to Toroweap yet, though I would certainly like to.
Attached Thumbnails
Toroweap van.jpg   Toroweap.jpg  
__________________
YoTerryH
2001 Ford Econoline E250
GTRV camper conversion
YoTerryh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-2019, 04:49 PM   #7
Senior Member
 
Twoxentrix's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Maryland
Posts: 3,338
Garage
Enjoyed your recap Bolty. Very useful commentary for others that I'm sure are now interested in following in your footsteps... Especially your confidence in the Vans capability on such a trip.
__________________
TwoXentrix
"AWOL"
Twoxentrix is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-23-2019, 06:54 AM   #8
Senior Member
 
larrie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Oregon Ciry Oregon
Posts: 2,837
Quote:
Originally Posted by bolty View Post
Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we drove the toughest sections. I had carefully quizzed the BLM staff on road conditions. I had told them I wanted to enter at Pipe Springs and then cross over to Mesquite – a trip they called “ambitious.” They warned me of one section, not long but with rocky drop-offs (1003). The rangers said, going east to west, we would be going downhill so it would be manageable for a vehicle our size. ...I can see that going uphill would be a challenge. ...there’s no room to turn around and it would be a very ugly hill to back down.
I had to laugh when I read the above section. We traveled west to east over the same road, 1003, on our trip and went up the steps. Our EB surprised me at how effortlessly it climbed the steps. It went up without any complaints on the first try. Tires were at about 30 psi. We only stacked rocks at the last step, the tallest. While we were stacking rocks two motorcyclists came by. One had a difficult time and dumped his bike. Even though it is short it is not an easy uphill route.
__________________
Larrie
Read detailed trip reports, see photos and videos on my travel blog, luinil.com.
Current van: 2002 Ford E350 extended body camper with Colorado Camper Van pop top and Agile Offroad 4WD conversion.
larrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off

» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3
Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sportsmobile SIP or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:57 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.