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Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
(April 2023)
Grand Canyon-Parashant is one of the most recent National Monuments, commissioned in January of 2000. I found it while looking for a National Park more rugged than Capitol Reef. Parashant definitely fits the bill!Mike and I fitted a mechanical locker to the Jeep's front differential before this trip. It joins 35-inch mud/snow (M+S) tires, plenty of ground clearance, and an electrically-operated rear locker to create a formidable machine.
We set out at 4 AM and refueled the Jeep at Terrible's in Kingman. Yeah, that's a new brand to us also!
We crossed the new bridge for Highway 93 far above the Colorado River and the Hoover Dam. I did manage to take a shot of the river far below us. If you wish to see some of my shots of the Hoover Dam, visit this trip page.
I accidentally misread Mike's phone directions. (That's why I use paper maps!) It did afford us a view of the north side of Lake Mead. Click for a larger view.
After we drove out of the pleasant town of Boulder City, we joined the new Interstate 11. Along this road are steel cut outs of men traveling to work on the Dam. Nice touch.
We encountered some traffic driving around Las Vegas. North of the city I spotted small, fast-moving airplanes. I determined that they were military UAVs operating from nearby Nellis Air Force Base. I've worked on sensor systems mounted to these aircraft, which are popularly known as "drones". Here are the two clearest images that I took of them. One & Two.
We stopped for fuel again in Mesquite, Nevada. It seemed to be a friendly town. As we pulled off the pavement, we got our first view of Parashant. Well, technically Parashant lies on the other side of the snowy Virgin Mountains. When we stopped to deflate the tires, I took some photos that I stitched together into a panorama. Click for that stitched image.
We continued on Lime Kiln Canyon Road toward the Monument and crossed back into Arizona. The road began to climb into the mountain pass. Then, we saw a warning sign.
Along the road we saw a couple of individuals car camping. The snow had fallen yesterday.
The trail deteriorated surprisingly quickly as we climbed. There were some sections that were especially nasty for the loaded Jeep. The county must do quite a bit of repair work after winter ends, because we passed this sign stating BICYCLES CROSS WITH CAUTION
Before we reached the summit, we crossed into Parashant. Click to see our first view of Parashant. The Wash Cliffs are the mountains in the background.
The Information Kiosk showed a much clearer day than we had. It snowed on and off much of the day! We traveled north along Route 1041 looking for a spot to camp. Anywhere that looked promising was already occupied by cow manure. Though, they do have a good view:
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Route 1041 kept climbing, and we hit some serious mud and snow. You can see it caked on the hood in this shot that I took after we turned south on Route 1004. We figured that in the valley it would be warmer and drier. Camping in wet condtions is no fun!
We turned onto County Route 101. This road is well groomed. Exhausted, we turned on a marked side trail and made our own campsite.
Later that night, Mike broke out a treat: Cosmic Magical Flames. These packages of powdered metal burn in vibrant colors, as you can see in this photo!
It was a chilly night with temperatures just below freezing. We decided to stay the day and the following night in the same spot to recuperate. Mike captured the camp well.
We climbed the cliff near camp to take some shots of the scenery and to check for cellular signal. The view was worth the climb, even if the camera can't accurately present the beauty:
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I busied myself with cutting up deadwood and dead branches for the fire. I did rest and admire the view from the camp:
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