Pls help me- trip to North Rim of the Grand Canyon

[Saint Monica]

I've always wanted to go.  Now I can.  However googling has told me that I really have no concept of direction/distance/etc.

I'm going in early October.  My dream is coming true and I feel like I cannot plan for shit.

North rim is the only constriction.  So stuff in that area/region.

[erbear]

What are you trying to plan?

[mmmomof2]

It was a long time ago, but we visited there in 2000 before we were married. We drove through Las Vegas from LA and stayed at the Grand Canyon Lodge. I'm not sure if the lodge is operated by the National Park Service, but you can book reservations here www.grandcanyonforever.com/index.php/lodging/ The lodge is hard to get reservations at during peak times, but I don't know if October is peak. There's a restaurant there that was really nice, with open windows over the canyon. It seriously looked like a painting. I know we did one of the mule tours. It's at high altitude (higher than south rim) so it closes in the winter.


The whole place was really cute and kind of reminded me of the Wilderness Lodge at Disneyworld. I might try to book for next summer - I remember thinking it would be fun to take my future kids there!

[ellipses84]

We went from Phoenix to South Rim to Vegas in March. The North Rim was closed at the time so I’m not much help there! It should be open in October though. It was a quick trip passing through for us and we plan to go back for more activities when our kids are older. I was going to suggest Pink Jeep Tours since I’ve heard tons of great things from people who have used them, but I don’t think they have any north rim tours. They do have west rim tours that leave out of vegas and are a 10 hour day trip. There’s probably a lot of helicopter options, too, but I would want to experience it from the ground too.

We nearly went to the west rim instead of south but there weren’t a lot of accommodations and with having to schedule / travel to the glass walk, it was easier and cheaper for us to just go a little out of our way for South Rim instead. The west rim closed much earlier so it didn’t really work with our timing unless we spent the night before and woke up early. I did see some really unique expensive options for staying on a ranch that included a helicopter experience and others that looked totally sketchy / roughing it for a high price. There was one decent hotel that was fully booked. Just mentioning this because it really wasn’t that bad of a drive to Vegas past West Rim.

[RoxMonster]

If you want to stay in the park, here is where you would need to book reservations. Unless there are cancellations, I doubt you will find anything for a few weeks from now. www.grandcanyonforever.com/contact-us

If you can't book there, further out you could try Jakob Lake, Page, or Kanab (UT). It is pretty remote so the downside of North Rim is not a ton of places to stay nearby. You might be able to find some vacation rentals closer.

If you decide to also do South Rim, I can help a lot more with that! I have not visited North Rim but we just did South Rim this summer. I would love to go to North Rim sometime, but would need to plan far in advance because I want to stay in one of those cabins right on the rim there!

One heads up about West Rim that someone mentioned: that is not in the national park. It is also pretty pricey with a high per person admission cost and then added costs to do things like the Skywalk. You also cannot take photos on the Skywalk and have to pay for their pictures. Some people have a lot of fun going there, so I'm not saying don't go, but just wanted to mention that. A lot of people think it's in the national park and run by the NPS; it is not. It is on tribal land.