Today I am beginning a 4 part blog series where I focus on my trip to the Grand Canyon. This was my first time visiting this wonder of the natural world and US National Park. Once we entered the park we never left it until after we checked out, which was about 72 hours later. For this part of the series, I going to focus on the basics ; where to stay, what to eat, and getting around. This list is based on what we did during our visit and learned.
**Please note we only visited and stayed at the south rim, so all of these posts will be about the south rim part of the park. The north rim is closed each year from December to May due to the weather. From what I gather, the north rim is also less visited with fewer amenities.
The fee to enter the Grand Canyon Park is $35 but it is good for 7 days. There is a village within the park called Grand Canyon Village and that is where you are going to find the lodging and food I mention below.
Lodging
Let's start with lodging as that is usually the first things people look at. There are many options if your prefer your standard hotel chains in the nearby towns of Flagstaff and Williams. However, you may be like us and want to stay inside the village in the park. If camping is your cup of tea they do have campsites available. There are even small cabins you can rent through the Bright Angel Lodge. If you want a more traditional hotel, there are a few options. The El Tovar Hotel is the most expensive and sits right on the rim. We opted for its slightly less expensive neighbor, Kachina Lodge.
We picked this because of its location. We wanted to be on the rim with easy access to some trails and food options. It did cost us close to $300 a night after all the fees; and we stayed there in the middle of November, during mid-week. That means expect this price tag to be higher on the weekends and during their busy season.
We checked in for the hotel at the El Tovar and from what I can gather from my research, most of the hotels in the park, you are paying for the location. A lot of these buildings are older, but you can tell they are putting some effort into updating some parts of the rooms. However, don't expect luxury and you are not going to find a lot of amenities either. Our room was fine in size but the bathroom was small. However, the shower water was hot and the bed was clean. Again it was nothing super fancy, but did fit the setting.
If we were to return, I would consider booking at the Maswick Lodge, as I seen they have done recent updates. They are not right on the rim but still in the park and not a bad location. The cabins at Bright Angel Lodge are also one I would consider as well.
Finally I want to talk about Phantom Ranch. This is the lodging that sits at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. If you want to hike to the bottom and back; it is strongly discouraged to try and do it in a single day (more on that next blog post). It is recommended you plan to spend a night or two at the bottom once hiking down. However, to get a room here requires planning well in advance, as space is limited. Its done via a lottery system and you have to put your name on the list 15 months in advance. I suggest doing more research if you are interested. We had talked about someday putting our names on the list and just making a last minute trip if we get in. Who knows if we actually will though.
You can also tent camp at the bottom but it does require a permit and is also a lottery system. You can get more information on that through Backcountry Permit. Bottom line you will need to be flexible in your travel plans and dates if staying on the bottom is on your must do list.
Food
There are several options inside the park to eat, but I am going to say this now and will probably repeat. Almost everything is overpriced for what you get. That does not mean what we ate was terrible, though there was one meal that was, but more on that later. It simply means that you are paying more for it than you would for the same level of quality anywhere else. If you want something better and more affordable you will want to leave the park. We did not want to waste our short time there driving in and out of the park for meals, so we just ate on site.
With our limited time we did not get to try any of the food courts that they have as Maswick or Yavapai Lodges. These seem to be popular though with visitors looking for something more affordable and quick. Bright Angel Fountain was super close to our hotel and had some quicker grab and go items that weren't bad (including coffee drinks). Here are the 3 sit down places we ate and my ranking of them from best to worst:
Located in the Yavapai Lodge the word Tavern is a little bit of a stretch. Its off to the side of the dining hall and is is a bar with a few pub tables, but still has sort of a food court feel. The menu here is limited but the pricing isn't terrible. The nachos for around $19 are a good option, as its a large portion easily shareable. This is definitely my recommendation if you want something fairly good and reasonably priced inside the park.
This is right on the rim and was just a short walk from our hotel. Out of all the dining options this one has the most contemporary to its style. We had dinner there our first night. The Southwest Tortilla soup was hands down the star of the night; it had wonderful spices and flavor. My husband had a steak that he enjoyed and I had the salmon. The salmon was disappointing. The prickly pear butter compound butter noted on the menu was basically non-existent; and the fish was bland. The rice and broccoli that came with it though was really delicious and seasoned well. Overall, I think this is a good option if you want a nicer dinner but don't want to worry about a dress code; like they have at the El Tovar hotel for their dinner service. It has a finer dining feel but I would say its worth it if it cost about 20% less.
The soup pictured above and my salmon dinner below.
Located inside the Bright Angel Lodge, this is where we went for breakfast. During my research I had heard this place had been going through some new change in management and wasn't quite what it was before. However, we figured its usually not hard to mess up breakfast; but somehow this place did. I ordered an omelet and it was the worst one I have ever had. The egg was way overcooked, and they overloaded it with way too much cheddar cheese. Since the egg was overcooked and to much cheese added; dense globs of cheese coagulated, and it felt like I was chewing on wax. The potatoes were not well cooked and under seasoned. I was hugely disappointed (and forgot to take a pic of the meal). Hopefully they step up their game and if you have been and your experience was better; let me know.
Finally I do want to mention there is a grocery store located in the village should you want to purchase your own food and they also have some grab and go items there.
Getting Around
Do you need a car to visit the Grand Canyon? I would say the answer depends on what you want to do. There is a free shuttle service that run through parts of the park and the Grand Canyon village. There are some view points and hikes you can only access them by taking the shuttle. If you are staying outside the park and drove in for the day, I would recommend going to the visitor's center to park and take the shuttle from there.
If you are like us, and staying at a hotel in the park it may be best to try and get a parking spot by your hotel and then utilize the shuttle from there. One complaint I had about our hotel stay is that the parking lot by the hotel is not that big and anyone can park there. I would think for the price, at least one amenity could be a parking pass reserving those spots for hotel guests. We lucked out and there was one spot open when we went to check in. There is other parking nearby, it just may require a little bit more of a walk. Not appealing when carrying luggage, but luckily we didn't have to find out.
The downside if you don't have a vehicle of your own is that there are parts of the park that the shuttle does not go. The shuttle tends to stick from the Hermits Ridge area to Yaki Point, which I circled on the map below.
We entered the park from the East Entrance and our first stop was the Desert View area. This is one of my favorite areas of the park that we visited. The whole ride along that Desert View Drive offered some great view points you can pull over at, so I am glad we had a car to explore it at our leisure. If you don't have a car it may make taking this road difficult as it is 23 miles long. However, you could rent a bike from the rental shop next to the visitor center.
Don't stress though if you don't make it to that specific part of the park; everywhere is simply stunning.
Hit me up if you have visited the Grand Canyon and stayed or eaten somewhere on property with your thoughts. Next blog post to come in this series, I will be discussing the hiking trails.
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