Grand Canyon National Park

Why this park

The Grand Canyon is the chasm kids know from pictures and that still catches nobody prepared in real life: 446 kilometres long, up to 29 kilometres wide and almost 1,800 metres deep, with the Colorado River a thin ribbon on the bottom. The South Rim is open all year and has every facility — visitor centre, shuttles, campgrounds, shops — and sits a comfortable drive from Las Vegas, Flagstaff or Williams. The North Rim is higher, quieter and only open in the summer months.

For an RV trip, the Grand Canyon is the rest day your route needs. You park the RV at the campground, leave it for two days and move along the rim on the free shuttle buses. No hunting for parking, no long drives; just walking, looking out and a ranger programme at sunset. Two nights on the South Rim give you a full day on site — exactly what the canyon deserves instead of a glance in passing.

With kids

The Rim Trail is the easiest win: a mostly paved path along the edge, with railings on the busiest stretches, that you can join or leave at every shuttle stop. The section between Mather Point and Yavapai Point is stroller-friendly, and the Yavapai Geology Museum uses models to explain how the canyon formed. The Trail of Time along the rim marks every metre as a million years — a maths lesson kids follow without complaint. Pick up the Junior Ranger booklet at the visitor centre and check the ranger programme: the evening talks and kids' walks are free.

Hiking down is possible, but keep it short. On the Bright Angel Trail the first stretch to the tunnels or the 1.5-mile resthouse is enough for most families; whatever you descend you have to climb back up in the sun and at altitude, and the park warns emphatically against trying to reach the river and back in one day. The South Rim sits at over 2,100 metres: carry more water than you think, start early and hold children's hands on unguarded rock edges, because most viewpoints have no railing. Never feed the squirrels or the deer — they bite and they are protected.

Camping and reservations

The South Rim has two campgrounds with room for RVs. Mather Campground in Grand Canyon Village is reserved via Recreation.gov; it is a wooded campground without hookups, with a dump station and a maximum vehicle length listed per site — check it in advance, because many rental RVs sit right at the limit. Trailer Village, next door, is the only campground in the park with full hookups and is run by the park's concessioner; you book through their own site. Desert View Campground on the east side is small, seasonal and only suitable for shorter RVs. On the North Rim there is the North Rim Campground, also on Recreation.gov and only open in summer.

Recreation.gov works with a rolling window — check per campground how far ahead sites are released and put that date in your calendar. Mather fills quickly in spring, summer and the autumn school holidays, especially the sites for longer vehicles. If the park is full, Tusayan sits right outside the south entrance with an RV park and, in season, its own shuttle into the park; Williams (an hour's drive) and Flagstaff (an hour and a half) have plenty of RV parks and work fine if you do the canyon as a day trip, though you miss the sunset and the quiet morning on the rim.

Driving an RV

The approach roads to the South Rim — Highway 64 from Williams or from Cameron — are wide and quiet, with no tunnels or height restrictions relevant to a rental RV. Inside the park you leave the RV parked as much as possible. Hermit Road, the scenic road to the west, is closed to private vehicles from March through November and is covered by the red shuttle; the Village and the Kaibab Rim Route are covered by the blue and the orange shuttle. The car parks at the visitor centre have spaces for long vehicles, but they are full in the middle of the day — arrive before ten or park at your campground and walk to the stop.

Desert View Drive to the east exit is open to RVs and is the logical route towards Page or Monument Valley; the Desert View Watchtower makes a fine last stop. Check nps.gov for the current road status and whether the park is using timed entry or other access rules this season.

Frequently asked questions