Trailer Village, Grand Canyon AZ
The road from Page AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is familiar to us. It’s rather beaten up, there’s a sign pointing out that you’ll encounter rough road conditions for 24 miles! That was certainly true, though the views were wonderful. We passed through Antelope Pass towards Bitter Springs, it was narrow and steep. After crossing Little Colorado we turned onto Rt 64 leading to the east entrance. Again, stunning views along the way and more once we passed the entrance booth.
Our site in Trailer Village RV Park was large, with a tree shading the site and at the end of a row with few immediate neighbors. I loved the privacy though Tom was concerned about the level on the site or lack thereof. We found out that they are in the process of improving the campground but not in our section yet.
We quickly found out that local elks visited the campground regularly. One afternoon as we were sitting outside, we and others noticed them by one trailer a row over. The water connection was not tight and it dripped and the elks figured that out right away. These are large animals, much larger than the deer I’m used to and the males are just huge! Each evening they would stroll through the campground, very leisurely, probably looking for more water drips. I have to say everyone was pretty good about giving them plenty of room. We chatted with many of the campers, it’s always nice to see where people are from and what brings them to the park. We even met some folks from NJ at the campground and on one of the trailheads!
Grand Canyon Village has many connected biking and walking trails, plus a very good shuttle system, though later in the day it can get overwhelmed. We took the bikes off the camper and off we went exploring!
It’s hard to describe the Grand Canyon. It is so expansive, it’s hard to process the size. I remembered the rafting trip in 2015 and hiking down Bright Angel trail. Every time you thought that we must be around the final corner, there was another mountain! We took the shuttle to Hermit Point, got off a couple of times and hiked the trails. The next day we biked along the same road and stopped at Trailview Overlook to see Bright Angel Trail and at Powell Point, which commemorates John Wesley Powell’s trip down through Grand Canyon in 1869.
Biking up towards Hermit Point was great so the next day we decided to bike southeast, towards South Kaibab Trailhead. The bike trail is close to the canyon rim, quite close at times. The views are fantastic but it gave me some discomfort, you feel like you are ready to fly off the edge. Kaibab trailhead was busy, with lots of hikers going down for the short hike to Ooh Aah Point or the longer hike to Cedar Point. It was interesting to watch them get going, easy going down, but even the short hike has plenty of elevation gain on the return.
My favorite walk was along the Rim Trail from Yavapai Point to Verkamp Visitor Center. It is called the Trail of Time and it is designed to show the geological timeline of the canyon. It was very well done, there are rock samples along the way as well as telescopes, fixed to view specific rock formations. Going west is going back in time, which is what I did. Along the way, you see wonderful canyon views. I did see some folks taking chances and getting close to the edge, I hope that’s all worth that Instagram Pic.
I also learned about the Great Unconformity which is a gap in the age of rocks in the Grand Canyon. John Powell was the first one to call it that during his Colorado River trip. If you have a chance, read about his trip, here’s the book I read.
We ate at Bright Angel Tavern, and the food was great. We also had lunch at Market Plaza. I would recommend both, there are other restaurants within the park otherwise you need to drive outside to Tusayan, a few miles from the South Entrance.
What an amazing place! Now, onto Kanab and later on Zion National Park!
