We Made Reservations at the Mather Campground in the Grand Canyon National Park for March 2021

We decided to do another bucket list trip. The Grand Canyon.

Yeah, neither Adam nor I have ever been. It's another long trip, but we are up for the challenge. It'll be about a 5000 mile round trip. The little Toyota can definitely make it, and I think we can too. As I'm sure our readers are aware, you need to make reservations up to a year in advance to get a spot. Because of Covid, things are a little different right now (Jan 2021.) We are thinking of adding a stop in Austin, TX, as well. We were able to reserve a spot for an entire week, Yay! This is definitely not the norm, but during a pandemic... According to the NPS website, a lot of the public buildings are closed, including the visitor center. Since we are completely self-contained, we feel pretty safe for our upcoming trip. With our own hot shower, toilet and full kitchen set-up, there's no need to expose ourselves unnecessarily to the general public. We chose the Mather Campground over the RV park next door because it looked way more scenic. Yes, we will not have access to sewer or electric, but the temps there should be comfortable with an average of a high of 75F during the day and 45F at night. Those are based on statistics, so it's possible that it'll be very different for us. I just hate being hot at night. Hopefully, that wont be a concern. We do have a little propane heater if we we need it. We have a propane refrigerator that we just tested a few days ago, works perfectly! The Grand Canyon RV area, with full hookups, looked like a big parking lot. Not very scenic. The Mather Campground, where we will be, was built maybe in the 60's? Anyway, it was built before the big bus-type RV's became popular. The big RV's can be up to 45' long. They can fit in the RV park, but not in the older, Mather Campground. For example, our spot can only handle up to a 26' RV (we're 22') or motorhome, according to the website. I think we will see lots of tent neighbors too. The RV park is very close by and we will definitely be using their dump station and water filling station. We'll likely need to do that a few times during our stay. Unfortunately, we will need to go outside of the park for refilling our propane. We'll see how long we can make it last.

Adam applied via fax for a Backcountry permit. If he gets it, it will allow him to possibly hike down into the Canyon and stay there, in his own tent, overnight and climb back up the next day. We called a park ranger and asked specifics on how to do this. He gave us a lot of great advice, including the fact that we can definitely have a great experience without any tours or anything. He advised us to read as much as we can and do our research. Adam is in great shape. He's actually currently training for a big 15K race in Jacksonville, FL,  that starts a couple of days after we get back. I don't think he'll have any fitness issues with the hike into the canyon.

The other thing we did was to make reservations for lunch at the famous "El Tovar" hotel's restaurant. I've read that it's very nice and worth a visit. Reservations are recommended and lunch is a lot cheaper than dinner :-) They are open.