Toroweap Overlook
Interesting facts
- Lava from the Uinkaret volcanic field poured into the canyon here and dammed the Colorado River repeatedly between about 725,000 and 100,000 years ago.
- Geologists still debate whether those lava dams held for up to 20,000 years, creating long lakes, or burst quickly in catastrophic floods.
- Lava flows from these eruptions travelled about 76 miles down the canyon, and they have been used to date how fast the Grand Canyon was carved.
- Lava Falls Rapid, just downstream, is widely regarded as the most severe rapid in the Grand Canyon, and on some days its roar carries up to the overlook.
- The cinder cone of Vulcan's Throne, about a mile west of the overlook, is estimated to be roughly 73,000 years old and is cut by the Toroweap Fault.
- The Hermit Shale here is about 800 feet thick, far thicker than farther east, which is why a broad platform rather than a high rim surrounds the gorge.
- Although only 55 miles west of the North Rim headquarters in a straight line, the overlook is about 148 miles away by road.
- When George Corning Fraser climbed Vulcan's Throne in 1914, sheep grazed the area and a small reservoir had been built at the cone's foot.
- The name Tuweep was first used for an early Mormon settlement in the valley and is still the Park Service name for the district.
- The same volcanic field stayed active into human times: pottery dated to about 1050–1200 CE has been found within one of its lava flows.
Why it is worth it
At Toroweap the Grand Canyon has no gentle viewpoint railings and no layered foreground: the rock simply stops, and the Colorado River runs some 3,000 feet (about 900 metres) straight below. It is the only point in Grand Canyon National Park from which the river can be seen vertically beneath the rim, and the sheer, narrow walls of the Inner Gorge make it one of the most vertiginous views anywhere in the park.
The overlook – also called Tuweep Overlook or Toroweap Point – sits on the remote western North Rim, about 55 miles (89 km) west of the North Rim headquarters as the crow flies but far more by road. Both names come from Southern Paiute: Toroweap is usually glossed as a dry or barren valley, Tuweep as "the earth". The setting explains why a road can reach the brink at all. Here a thick band of soft Hermit Shale has worn back to form the broad Esplanade platform, and the high outer rim found farther east is missing, so the Toroweap Valley leads almost level to the edge of the inner canyon.
The valley follows the Toroweap Fault, along which volcanic activity built the Uinkaret volcanic field. Lava once poured into the canyon here, and the black cinder cone of Vulcan's Throne stands just west of the overlook. Below it the river crashes through Lava Falls, one of the best-known rapids of the Colorado, and old lava cascades still cling to the canyon wall. The combination of red sandstone, dark basalt and the sheer drop to the water makes Toroweap a landscape quite unlike the more visited South Rim.
Getting there
Toroweap is reached only by long unpaved roads. The main route, Mohave County road 109, leaves State Route 389 about 8 miles west of Fredonia, Arizona, and runs 61 miles south to the overlook; other tracks come from Colorado City (about 56 miles) and from St. George, Utah (about 90 miles). In a straight line the nearest town of any size is Hurricane, Utah, about 109 km away. The closest airport is St. George Regional Airport (SGU), about 100 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Toroweap Overlook is a viewpoint within the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, United States. It is located in a remote area on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, 55 miles (89 km) west of the North Rim Headquarters. The overlook is the only viewpoint in the National Park from where the Colorado River can be seen vertically below. The overlook stands 3,000 feet (910 m) above the river.
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