Getting ready to open the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. There’s a lot to do, it’s like opening a small town. The North Rim has been closed since the end of November. The entrance opens to the public on May 15th, and there will surely be a long line waiting to get in. Spring is the perfect time of year to hike the Grand Canyon and permits have been sold out for months.
From 1917-1927, visitors to the North Rim had to rough it in tent cabins.
Deluxe rim view cabins and Frontier cabins
Now accommodations vary from the Deluxe and Frontier cabins or hotel rooms which were built by Utah Parks Company over 80 years ago and now managed by Forever Resorts. Reservations should be made about a year in advance. In fact they are booked for the season but you could get lucky if someone cancels. So over 100 rooms need to be cleaned and aired out after the winter shut down.
The Grand Lodge offers fine dining, reservations recommended for dinner, and all kinds of good choices at the Deli in the Pines. Both kitchens have to set up and the lodge furniture moved into place.
There is also a 90 site campground under the Pondersa Pines which requires reservations. But there is free dispersed camping right outside the park in the Kaibab National Forest. That’s real camping with no amenities. And due to the dry forest conditions, please use extreme caution with fire.
Plus there’s a general store that offers basic groceries, beer and wine, and camping supplies.
Everything but the campground and visitor center are readied by Forever Resort employees who will be rolling in next week.
So, what do us Rangers have to do? We’ll be cleaning and readying the visitor center and getting our talks and walks polished up. I officially start work Monday except instead I’m going to the Kanab, Utah health clinic. I’ve been sick for a week, and trust me you don’t want the shitty details. I have to get healthy so I can hike rim-to-rim next week. Plus be ready to greet visitors on the15th. Hope you’ll be amongst some of this summer’s visitors after we open the North Rim.
What a great intro into what goes on behind the scenes before opening. Sure hope you feel better real soon.
I’d love to be there — wish I could! Very interesting to think about the work involved in “opening up a small town.”
Get well soon! Your tourists need you. (I might think that recent travel stresses probably didn’t help your resistance any!)
Depending on the kid situation this fall, we might just actually make it down there! GrCa is on the bucket list, of course! Have fun and feel better soon!!!!!!
Must say that my 2 visits to the North Rim were far more pleasant than our 2 visits to the South Rim. If I was a Park employee I would much prefer spending my season at the North Rim for sure.
Campground reservations? I didn’t realize the North Rim was that popular. Oh for the days when one could roam with out plans and visit our National Parks.
LOL!!! Maybe the details should be left out:) Now I really want to go. The idea of lodging is very romantic….spending several nights to a week sounds lovely. I hope everything goes well and wish you luck on your first day back. What a wonderful thing to look forward to…..I really enjoy your journeys around the northern part of the state. I wish I could go up there more often but the south is where I am….and I often avoid the middle:) Summer can’t arrive soon enough:) Feel better. Cheese is good:)
Marvellous look at your world.
Take care of yourself, Gaelyn! The park has changed since my family and I visited there frequently over 30 years ago, but then everything has, I guess! Hope all goes well! I know you’re glad to be back!
Sylvia
Get well soon!
Looks a wonderful place to be an employee and a tourist, but I don’t think I’d ever be organised enough to book my visit a year in advance!
A lot of work for sure to get ready for the visitors. Hope you feel better really soon.
The place sounds like a well oiled machine. Oh how I hope to visit some day
You better take care of yourself! Unfortunately, I have not set my eyes on Grand Canyon yet, but my friends are, camping at Havasupai Falls.
I am getting ready for my photos too!
Lots and lots of work.
When we visited the north rim as kids we always did the camping on the National Forest. Dad was USFS you see and didn’t want to do anything that my brand us as tourists. Personally, I find being a tourist liberating. Tourists are not cool, it takes too much energy to be cool.
Dang, I keep forgetting to check the box that I’m human.
Great Our World post. Most people don’t realize that camping and extended hiking have to be reserved a year in advance. Maybe some people thinking of traveling out this way will reserve for next year. We are coming out this summer, but our hiking days are done. 🙂 And, we can stay in the Kaibab Ntl Forest, so I need to find out about that as soon as I know exactly when….Loved your photos! I remember being there like it was yesterday! Have a great season!
It never occurred to me lodging is that tight! What a cool thing to watch it come alive every spring.
Hello all, We are trying, too late as usual, to get reservations in a Western Cabin for a stay at our favorite place, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I know that there are several cancellations as the year goes by but it is not a guarantee. We pay homage to the Brighty display every year as the little boy on Brighty is my father. He and my grandparents started the first tourist camp there in 1917 to 1928 called the “Wylie Way”. He was only 8 years old when the picture was taken but started at the age of 7 procuring water for the business. That year was tough for him in that the burro he used was very stubborn and hard to catch. The following summer, Jim Owen gave them Brighty the burro to use and the rest is history. Marguerite Henry wrote her book BRIGHTY OF THE GRAND CANYON based on an article that grandfather wrote for Sunset Magazine in about 1930. I’m not sure of the date. thanks, M. Krueger
I hope I can speak this summer in August, maybe the 17th. I was allowed to speak last summer and it went very well. I love talking about my family’s history, starting at the North Rim in 1917. Dad is the little boy sitting on Brighty the burro, in the display in the Grand Canyon Lodge, North Rim.