To get to Toroweap (a Paiute word meaning “dry or barren valley”), you’ll have to travel nearly 150 miles from Bright Angel Point before you’re back inside park boundaries. You may decide not to visit this lonely spot overlooking Lava Falls the first, second, or even 10th time you travel to Grand Canyon, but it’s one to add to your Grand Canyon bucket list.

The journey spans some 60 miles of dirt roads through Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holdings on the Arizona Strip, including a small stretch of the Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, established in January 2000 by President Bill Clinton.

You’ll need a high-clearance vehicle and a good spare tire 9or two). The reward for this trip through the Strip is a perspective of Grand Canyon that few people see outside of book covers, an impressive drop to the river with no crowds or barricades, and a clear view of the ancient lava flows that captured John Wesley Powell’s imagination in 1869, when he wrote: “What a conflict of water and fire there must have been here!”

It’s possible to travel to Toroweap and back in a day (about six hours round-trip), but consider spending the night at Toroweap Campground, a cluster of 10 sites one mile from the rim overlook. There are no entry or camping fees—and no services except for composting toilets—but campsites may fill by midday.

At 4,550 feet, Toroweap is the lowest rim overlook in the park, but one of the most precipitous: Sheer cliffs fall away 3,000 feet below to the Colorado River. You can see—and hear—Lava Falls by walking to the rim, a few hundred feet beyond the overlook parking area. The Class 10 rapids are one of the toughest on the river.

There are no guardrails or fences at this primitive overlook, and peering over the edge to look at tiny rafts floating past on the Colorado River far below can stir up a strong sensation of acrophobia, even in the fearless. Views up- and downriver are stunning, especially at sunrise and sunset. Photographers can spend hours here, looking for the perfect rocky outcropping to use as the foreground.

If you plan to do any backpacking in the area, you’ll need a permit. Often, you can get a last-minute permit at the ranger station here. Day-hiking possibilities include meandering along the rim near the campground and overlook, taking nearby Tuckup Trail a short way, or bushwhacking up Vulcan’s Throne, a 700-foot-high cinder cone west of the overlook.

Volcanic activity along the Toroweap fault began about seven million years ago. Lava flowed into the canyon several times, damming the Colorado River. Though it wasn’t the steaming conflict that Powell imagined, the reality is no less impressive: About 1.2 million years ago, lava flows created dams over 1,000 feet high, forming a lake that extended for hundreds of miles. Basalt remnants of the lava dams are visible today.

Getting to Toroweap

To travel to Toroweap (also known as Tuweep) from Jacob Lake, take U.S. 89A to Fredonia, turning left on Highway 387. About seven miles west of Fredonia, look for a dirt road with a sign reading “Mt. Trumbull.” At 46 miles, the road forks. Continue straight to Toroweap, following the signs. Once you cross the park boundary, the road becomes rockier. Check in at the Tuweep Ranger Station on your way to the overlook, another six miles.