Andys 40th birthday road trip

Thanks Wec67

I was planning on booking a flight from Vegas to one of the quieter, more remote areas of Grand Canyon for a day sight seeing and watching the sun set as a family. Any recommendations grateful taken on board.

Thanks CAnative

Yes I Should allow Ethan to build some wishes into the trip. If he gets his way he'll have us climbing El Capitain

Flying to the grand canyon and looking for a remote part of the canyon is a contradiction. If you want remote, then id look to the north rim, but there is not air service there. The south rim is the only part of the national park serviced by an airport just outside the park. Most helicopter tour from vegas go to the west rim, which isn't part of the national park and doesn't have the same famous views as the national park.

There are many locations to view sunset along the south rim and different travel guides list different favorites. I don't recall as many viewing locations along north rim (from a long-ago trip) but there are fewer people.

I would certainly consider driving to the South rim and spend a night there to make it an unforgetable experience. I would plan on visiting it by road in between LA and Vegas rather than going to Vegas to GC and back to Vegas.

Thanks again Dave

Just looked at your photo album with your pics from South Rim, ticks all our boxes. Any recommendation for a campsite??

Just sent the evening with a friend who has taught me the fine art of Google Maps and plotting routes.

Believe it or not I am starting to look forward to work finishing each day so I can get back to planning our trip.

Cheers mate.

At the south rim and near to the village you have the choice of Mather Campground where we stayed or the Trailer village. Mather has no hook ups, but you don't really need them for a night or 2 as the RV will have an onboard generator and it's own water supply. Again, both options are extremely popular and booking is essential if not too late already. You do have other options nearby but it's good to be there and be able to walk from your RV to the rim and shuttle bus services.

Our RV trip from SF a few years ago did not include the coast and LA, but this is what we achieved in a similar time frame and might give you a couple of ideas for your trip.

Thanks Guys the planning has now become more a pleasure than a task.

The first stage of my RV holiday now looks like this

Day 1 - flight from UK to Lax
Overnight stay at Sheraton Gateway Hotel
Day 2 - Pickup motor home from El Monte rental approx 12pm, find a supermarket to
stock up and then hit the road to Grand Canyon South Rim.
Overnight and South rim
Day 3 - explore South Rim
Head out to Vegas late afternoon

This is were I need everyone's help again. The drive from LA to GC is showing on google maps to take 7hrs, would you recommend doing the drive in one or spend the night somewhere en route??? If you recommend a night over, any suggestions of where to stay the night with the RV.

Many thanks everyone Andy

Hi Andy.

Sometimes if you speak to the local rental office direct they may let you collect earlier. Even so it could take up to 10 hours from the RV rental place [depending on location] untill the time you get to the GC. It can take an hour to do the paperwork and get shown how to operate the RV and then you have to familiarise yourself with the size of it and cope with LA traffic, get shopping and book into the campground. You might be better off planning to stop on route to take that kind of pressure off and trying to arrange to collect at 10am. You could comfortably get to Kingman, or a little further if you got out of LA at a reasonable time.

Although if you did collect at 10am you could make it to GC, I wouldn't recommend it on your first day with the RV.

Have you got any campgrounds booked yet ? When are you travelling ?

Hi Dave

We are still working out the route as yet, so I haven't booked any campgrounds yet. I looked at both I looked at Mather and it was fully booked.

Any suggestions gratefully received

Cheers
Andy