Life's Adventures: Memorial Day Weekend Adventure... to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Well I made it back from the North Rim! What an incredible trip. We left Las Vegas Friday afternoon about 4:30 and headed toward Mesquite. We stopped for a little dinner and most importantly to top of the jeeps with fuel. We maybe cutting it a little close on fuel this trip, even with the extra 5 gallons we each packed for the trip. We will see how it plays out! Once we left Mesquite we were in the dirt and it was after dark. After several stops to check the map we finally found the right trail leaving Mesquite and into the mountains. We weren't exactly sure what we were in for but quickly realized that the trail began to gain elevation quickly which meant a pretty steep and rugged trail at night. After 15 miles or so, and Jared and I getting our left front tire of the ground pretty good, we finally reached the summit and found a suitable campsite. I think this was our coldest night of the trip, probably due to the elevation which was 6200 feet. It had to be in the low 30's I would guess. The next morning we had breakfast and headed toward Bar 10 Ranch. Bar 10 is a working cattle ranch that also offers rafting, atv rides, skeet shooting, along with many other activities. They are also were I order my grass feed beef from. So if you are looking for some great beef check out their website. After visiting Bar 10 we headed out to Whitmore overlook but on our way we got side tracked and ended up at Paw's Pocket instead. Which would be our camp for the night. The next morning we finally made our way to Whitmore overlook to get our first views of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. After some snacks and pictures we loaded up and were on our way to Nampaweap. Nampaweap is a petroglyphs site with rock art dating back 10,000 years. After a short hike into the site and some pictures we were back at the jeeps and on our way to Tuweep to see the view and get a campsite. Well after a long dusty drive we arrived at Tuweep. To our dismay the ranger informed us that the 12 sites they had, none were available. We were all a little disappointed because we really wanted to came on the rim. This didn't slow us down though. We decided to enjoy Tuweep while we were there and take in the view and take many pictures in the process. At this point Steven all of a sudden became extremely concerned about the mileage ahead of us and the amount of fuel we had left. I wasn't to worried about it, figured we would cross that bridge if we got to it. Jared blew off Steven's concerns with a couple of jokes and we went on our way. We decided to head back towards the Nampaweap turn off and find a remote campsite there. We ended up finding a great spot overlooking a valley. This would be our last campsite for the weekend. We woke up Monday morning to a great day with nice and mild morning temps. We had breakfast and got camp all packed up. By this time we had become experts and getting all our stuff crammed back into our jeeps! Next we were off to see the Mt Trumbull mill site and the Mt Trumbull school house. We then headed back into St George for fuel and some In and Out Burger. Oh and by the way, we still had 3.5-4 gallons of fuel in each jeep, see Steven we had plenty of mileage left. After fuel and lunch it was all pavement back to sunny Las Vegas!

Special thanks to rei for sponsoring this trip with all their great gear and dividend checks!