Toroweap Overlook

I promised them an adventure they would never forget. And, maybe for the first time, I delivered.

We were in Saint George for the long President’s Day weekend. I had wanted to go see the Grand Canyon at Toroweap Overlook, and everything was lining up nicely: the weather, the schedule, the preparations, everything was good. But, the night before several kids grumbled about having to go on one of dad’s crazy adventures in the desert. I told them that this might just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that they would never forget looking into the Grand Canyon.

Drew was really the only one excited to go when we woke up Sunday morning. And that was only because he wanted to find some geocaches out in the desert. I confess that in his recent bedtime stories I made geocaching sound much more exciting than it actually is. But, in my defense, I needed someone else on my side or we would just end up going to church and hanging around being bored all day. Eventually Drew and I won the day, and we set out around 9:30am.

We drove out to Hurricane and then to Colorado City, right on the border of Arizona. We turned onto the Clayhole Road and headed South, ready for 60 miles of bumpy dirt roads. About 50 miles of that we would be out of cell phone reception. But, we had come prepared. We brought along plenty of extra water, food, and warm jackets and clothing. Just in case.

We stopped every once in a while to bag a geocache, but it was mainly to break up the trip and give the kids a chance to run around outside. So, we didn’t break any landspeed records getting to Toroweap Overlook, but we had some fun adventures getting there.

At long last, we finally made it to Toroweap Overlook. The last mile was very slow going. I was worried about bottoming out in our Suburban and took it really slowly. That was until I saw an old lady taking this rough terrain in her Toyota Prius. Crazy.

We parked the car and walked around. It was nerve-wracking approaching the edge of the canyon, and even more so with our young children. We’re talking a 3000 ft sheer drop down the the Colorado River. It’s impossible to explain this canyon or appreciate it from a few pictures. It was awesome.

I found out later that Jacob and Manina actually had a discussion about the pros and cons of shoving me off the edge. I’m not sure which one of them was more anxious to have me die a horrible death, but I’m glad they didn’t have the guts to pull it off. Had I known what they were conspiring to do, I might have looked even more nervous in some of these pictures.

On the way back everybody was pretty wiped out. We were not looking forward to more of the bumpy roads, but were ready to get back to our home base and cook some dinner. We had a meal planned out waiting for us to cook upon our return.

On the drive back I made a fateful decision. I decided to take the scenic route. Instead of going back on the Clayhole Road which we’d driving in on I decided to take the County Road 109, which would give us a total of 2 fewer miles of dirt road. Plus, that was the road our GPS was telling me to go, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? Manina had nodded off, so she didn’t object to my decision. And off we went.

About an uneventful hour later Manina woke up and started checking her cell phone for service. Nothing. She’s with Verizon and I’m with AT&T so she checked my phone. Nothing. We were 3.7 miles from the 389 and I felt the back end of the Suburban starting to sway. I slowed down, knowing it was a tire problem. Then the dash beeped at me. CHECK LEFT REAR TIRE. I stopped. The dash beeped again CHECK RIGHT REAR TIRE. Oh no.

I got out and checked the tires. The left rear tire was flat. I walked around to the right tire. It looked low. I thought if I could quickly swap the left tire we might be able to get to the road or to civilization before the right tire went flat. I started to take off our spare tire but in the process I noticed the right rear tire was now completely flat. We were in trouble.

Often I deal with stress in an unhealthy way. I stood outside for a while and then started screaming at the sky, “TWO TIRES?! REALLY?! I CAN HANDLE ONE TIRE, BUT TWO? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

My kids all laughed about it later.

I was walking through some scenarios in my mind. We could walk to the road, less than 4 miles away and get help. We could wait for a passing car and flag them down. Then, Manina’s phone had a single bar of service. I called 911 and told them of our dilemma. They dispatched an officer and called a towing company for us. We waited.

The officer was the first to arrive. He told us this road was infamous for tire problems and we certainly weren’t the first. He said he’d been on a call not all that long ago to help a lady with one tire, and he ended up cutting two of his own and needed a tow out. Just rough country. Just bad luck getting two at the same time. Luckily, we had just made it into cell phone range.

Jake from Ramsay Towing came and towed us back to Kanab, Utah where he had a nice shop. He went about fixing our tires while Manina started telling the story via text message. I found this example:

Drew loved seeing Jake fix our tires and put them back on the Suburban. Drew even got to help run the machine. He had fun while we waited. Thankfully both tires were able to be patched and we were soon on our way, only $188 poorer. But, I was right, it was certainly an adventure we will never forget.