Need advice for Grand Canyon vacation 2015

We are looking at staying a few days to sight see in June or July 2015 around Grand Canyon, then spend 1-2 nights in Vegas then drive back (Oklahoma). Which resorts would you reccomend? Will have 3 boys 15,13,9 myself and wife....

As far as I know, the closest timeshares to the South Rim of Grand Canyon are in Flagstaff, AZ. There are also some in Sedona, AZ, but the trip to the Park is further.

If you'll only be there a night or two, you'd probably be better off staying at a motel near the park, or at one of the Lodges inside the Park. [link removed at owner's request]

Staying inside the Park gives you a great advantage of "already being there" to catch the sunrise, which is spectacular. We really enjoyed watching it from Mather Point. https://www.google.com/search?q=mat...crosoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&gws_rd=ssl

Have fun!

Dave

gruberguy said:

We are looking at staying a few days to sight see in June or July 2015 around Grand Canyon, then spend 1-2 nights in Vegas then drive back (Oklahoma). Which resorts would you reccomend? Will have 3 boys 15,13,9 myself and wife....

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Since I just got back from Arizona and GCNP... here's some tips.

It depends on how long you want to be in the area. I have 3 kids under 5, so our events and scheduling were a little slower than what you might be able to do.

I'd hit Wyndham Flagstaff for 3 days. Try to get a 2BR Plus that has the hot tub on the deck. That is a good spot to check out Lowell Observatory (where Pluto was discovered). It is also about a 2-hour drive to Petrified Forest and 30 minutes to Meteor Crater (we did not make it to either).

We did the drive up Hwy 89 so we could come into GCNP from the East Rim road. If you take this route, you can hit Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments on the way if you leave Flagstaff early enough. We had to skip it this time.

I would plan for at least 3-4 days in GCNP itself (South Rim). It is about 90 minutes from Flagstaff, so you would be best off getting lodging in/near the park vice commuting. I highly recommend the El Tovar, which is a historic hotel right on the canyon rim walkway. It gets pricey ($325/night for a non-view room), though. At least go to the El Tovar dining room for dinner one night.

Less expensive is the Bright Angel Lodge, which has units on the canyon rim as well as cabins/units away from the rim which can be cheaper. That would be my second choice.

For either of these, you need to be calling in to GCNP lodging (handled by Xanterra) NOW to make a booking. There are other options as well (Yavapai, Thunderbird, etc.), but they are not as nice or are a bit of a drive to the center of things.

We only had one overnight, so for our day, we took the shuttle buses on the Hermit Route (closed to normal vehicles in summer). I thought the best views were at the Maricopa, Hopi, and Mojave stops. We opted no to go all the way to the end at Hermit, and turned back at Pima Point. I doubt we missed much by doing so. The buses ran every 8-10 minutes, and we took about 3 hours in total for that. It is best do do early in the morning (before 10) to avoid crowds and the heat (the afternoons have risk of T-storms).

If we have more time, we would have hit the GCNP visitor center and done some more hiking. You can do day-trip or overnight mule rides into the canyon. That's about all I can think of, since we had only 24 hours there, but that just means we'll have to come back sometime in the future.

BMWguynw said:

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Staying inside the Park gives you a great advantage of "already being there" to catch the sunrise, which is spectacular. We really enjoyed watching it from Mather Point. https://www.google.com/search?q=mat...crosoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&gws_rd=ssl

Have fun!

Dave

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And staying there makes it EASY to watch the sunset as well! Sunrise/sunset times are posted in the weekly flyer they hand to you when you enter the park.

You don't need to call to book any of the lodges in the Grand Canyon. You can do it all online.

http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/

We stayed at the El Tovar for two nights this past May. It was lovely, but if I were to go back I'd stay at one of the other lodges on the canyon rim.

We based ourselves in Sedona and had a timeshare unit there, but drove to the Grand Canyon for the two nights.

We've been considering a similar trip. If we do it, I think we'll do 3 days at Flagstaff, 2 nights in one of the park lodges, and the last 3 days at Sedona. We're not firm on that yet, but that's my thinking at present. We would fly in and out of Phoenix.

There is a lot to see and do in Sedona. Not so much in Flagstaff, but Flagstaff is centrally located for some great day trips. The trip out to the meteor crater and Petrified Forest NP is one. Another is up north to Monument Valley.

A few years ago we did a crazy trip. Flew into Phoenix, hit Montezuma Castle NM on the way to Flagstaff. Did a day trip from Flagstaff to Sedona. Then did meteor crater and Petrified Forest, continuing East and North and overnighting at Chinle (Canyon de Chelley NM). From there, north to Four Corners and Mesa Verde NP in Colorado. Then back to Monument Valley and Flagstaff. Then over to Grand Canyon. And then back to Phoenix. 8 days, about 1800-1900 miles. We were exhausted, but we saw a lot and had a great time.

To me, the problem with visiting Arizona (and many other areas out west) is that there is just SO much to see. For example that crazy trip we took would have been much, much better if it had been three weeks long instead of one. I could easily spend a month in northern AZ, another month in UT, and a third month in southern AZ.

We stayed in Las Vegas, did a day trip that included Lake Meade, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. We drove ourselves and spent the night near the canyons then drove back. A few days later from Las Vegas we drove to Disneyland for the day.

lprstn said:

A few days later from Las Vegas we drove to Disneyland for the day.

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That's just nuts. Tell me, how much did you all enjoy the Disneyland experience with that far of a drive each day in one day? That would have been a 4 hours, each way no traffic drive. How much time were you able to actually spend at Disneyland?

We based ourselves in Sedona and had a timeshare unit there, but drove to the Grand Canyon for the two nights.

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We just got back last week and that is exactly what we did. We had a week booked at Arroyo Roble. It was a lovely resort---the units were a bit dated, but impeccably clean, very well equipped and cared for. We then spent one night at the Maswik Lodge in the middle of the week. These rooms are half the cost of El Tovar, or less, but no more than a 3-5 minute walk from the rim. That gave us one sunset and one sunrise. We also came up the East entrance which was lovely but we dawdled a bit and didn't make it to a prime sunset spot in time, and watched just from the local area of the Village. That area is better for sunrise than sunset. We also got a couple of along-the-rim hikes in, but did not hike below the rim. It was a bit hotter than we were willing to face. We thought one night at the rim was okay, but if I had it to do over again, I might have gotten a second.

The rest of our time was spent in and around Sedona. We hiked Devil's Bridge (excellent!) and Coffeepot, went horseback riding, and saw the Honanki ruins. Just being in Sedona was a treat; the scenery is outstanding just about any direction you look. There were still some closures due to the Oak Creek fire; slide rock park was closed to swimmers, for example, and by the end of the week all of Oak Creek canyon was closed due to the threat of flash floods in the fire scar area. But, even with a few things off-limits, it was a great vacation.

The Wyndham resort in the area looks quite nice, but is not in quite as good a location as Arroyo; the latter is down a (somewhat steep) hill from the main drag of uptown, the main tourist drag. But, I would have enjoyed the Wyndham just as much.

I'm typing this reply tonight from a hotel in Phoenix, we just flew in this afternoon.

Tomorrow we are driving to the Wyndham in Sedona where we are staying 3 nights. After that it's on to the Wyndham in Vegas for 4 nights.

A couple of years back (2007), I had a conference in Vegas and had this crazy idea that I would do Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion National Park the weekend before.

Drove from Vegas to GCNP South Entrance. Spent the night at Bright Angel Lodge so we can see the sunrise. We then drove towards the East Entrance and essentially looped around to hit Bryce on the way to Zion where we spent another night at the lodge, before heading back to Vegas.

It was crazy...

We got back on 7/5 from a two week Wyndham AZ-CA trip. Spent four days at Flagstaff, three at Indio and a week in San Diego. On our first day we did the Sunset Crater/Wupatki National Monument Loop Road, off of Rt. 89, before we went to GCNP. We went in through the east enterance and saw all of the Desert View side before reaching the Visitor's center to get on the bus to Yaki Point for the sunset. (After reading about it twenty years ago, I finally saw Alpenglow first hand.)
For our second day, we entered through the south enterance. We went to Hermit's Rest at the west end and worked our way back to the Visitor's Center. We then drove down to Williams and had dinner at "Cruiser's Cafe 66 Bar & Grill" where we watched beef ribs being grilled at the walkway by the street. They were phenomenal!

Here's a hint. The national park system has permanent access passes for seniors and disabled. These passes get you into all of the national parks free and is good for up to four people. We didn't have to pay at the Sunset Crater/Wupatki National Monument, two visits to GCNP (saved $50), or at Joshua Tree NP.

Don said:

Here's a hint. The national park system has permanent access passes for seniors and disabled. These passes get you into all of the national parks free and is good for up to four people. We didn't have to pay at the Sunset Crater/Wupatki National Monument, two visits to GCNP (saved $50), or at Joshua Tree NP.

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We actually have a pretty wide variety of passes.

The regular entry fee is valid for seven days, and varies in price from park to park.

Most parks have an annual pass for that park only. Prices vary from park to park, and many have additional passes for boats, etc.

There is an annual pass to all parks called the "America The Beautiful" pass, which costs $80. The pass is valid through the end of the month of purchase one year later, so if you time it cleverly you can actually get 13 months of use. This pass admits everyone in your car at most locations, even if you have a 16-passenger van (as long as it's not a commercial tour). There is one oddball exception, which you will rarely encounter. Some parks charge per capita, rather than per vehicle. At those sites, the pass admits four; anywhere else, it's whatever your vehicle will hold.

The America The Beautiful pass is valid not only at all 400 National Park Service sites (parks, seashores, scenic rivers, memorials, monuments, battlefields, etc, etc), but it is also valid at all National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Land Reclamation, and US Fish and Wildlife sites nationwide. Something like 1,000 places nationwide.

There is also a Military America The Beautiful pass. Same use, but free -- to active duty US military personnel and their dependents only. You have to show current active duty ID to get or use this pass. Sorry, not for retired military.

Then there is the Senior Pass for US Citizens and permanent residents 62 years and older. Same benefits as the America The Beautiful pass with two differences -- it costs $10, and it is a LIFETIME pass.

And finally, there is the Access Pass. This is a free LIFETIME pass for persons with disabilities. Same as the Senior Pass, but free.

ETA: The Senior Pass and Access pass are available only to US Citizens and permanent residents. Non-citizens are required to show their permanent resident card to purchase or use the pass.