Our first adventure to the Grand Canyon was somewhat last minute, and really well timed pre-COVID. On a Saturday at home sometime in December, we were talking through some plans and ideas. Somehow, the Grand Canyon suddenly became an option, mostly when we realized that we could drive there in just a few hours!

We initially started planning by picking our dates and plotting out what we would need to pack. We almost always prefer having a reservation for a site, but with winter regulations still being in place, reservations were not available. The only option was to hope we’d land in an open site and to plan for some backup options. We were planning to tent camp, so we spent some time trying to find the best site for our bigger tent since we planned to be there for several days.

As time went by, we watched the weather forecast and started to realize that it really was still winter in Arizona and they have weather. (Not something we deal with much of in Southern California!) The forecast had everything going on - wind, fog, rain, snow, ice, and sun. Every day it looked more and more like this was going to become quite an adventure!

With that in mind, we switched modes and decided to get a rental van to outfit for sleeping, so we could stay significantly warmer on those 20 degree nights with the possibility of rain/snow! We’re fans of tent camping in colder weather, even snow, but rain and freezing temps could be a mess, especially with four nights planned! We’ve rented a van before and just filled it with cozy camping stuff, and it worked out well, so this seemed like a good time to try that again.

On the day before we left, we picked up the van and parked at home to get it all loaded and temporarily “converted”. This whole process is really very fun! We use our foam puzzle pads for insulation, the same as we use in our Subaru. We added our REI Trekker camping pads, and the two thick Coleman bags, and it became quite comfy! With the bed base in place, we added our sleeping bags, pillows, and a couple of extra blankets, just in case it got really cold (which it did!). This whole bed folds in half to just take up the very back portion of the van. We then loaded our two Osprey Transporter bags, which held all of our clothes and accessories. One plastic tub held cooking supplies and lights, various camping items, and then the Yeti full of our food, and poof! It’s a campervan!

We used binder clips to hang curtains along the side windows, which were actually just two thin throw blankets. That blocks the lights from the campground, as well as keeping a thin layer between the cold windows and us. Privacy is the main purpose, but I like to think it' makes it’s warmer (it probably doesn’t).

We rolled out very early the next morning and had a very uneventful drive to the Grand Canyon. At arrival, we mostly noticed that the park seemed fairly calm and there was no line to enter. This gave us hope of finding a good campsite! Our first stop was the Mather Campground, the only one open in February, and the entrance booth was unmanned, due to everything being offseason and first come, first serve. Mather Campground only has one loop open in the winter, but much to our surprise, it was very open. There were at least a dozen sites for us to choose from! I think the cold weather and incoming “bad” weather played a role in how empty it was.

We found one we really liked, very flat for the van, with a lot of space between it and other sites. While we finished driving the loop and picking a spot, we ended up back where we started and in the first spot that we liked.

We arrived on Thursday and spent that afternoon acquainting ourselves with the park and enjoying the Rim Trail. On Friday, we hiked Kaibab into the Canyon, to Cedar Point, and back up. After that hike, we wanted to go shower and get cleaned up a little. The showers are located very centrally to the campground. Tokens were available at the main register just inside, and one token gets a 5 minutes shower. The showers are similar to a lot of other large national park facilities. They are stalls with locking doors, with a “dry area” to dress and undress, and a shower stall to step into. There were two separate areas set up with electric outlets to use blowdryers, etc. I appreciated that because it was too cold to go out with wet hair! We had the entire bathroom, which had about twelve shower stalls, completely to ourselves when we were there.

The campervan was a perfect home for this trip - we always had our food with us, and were able to stop and cook at various look-outs. We enjoyed the warmer vehicle to sleep in, and especially that it kept us dry! As soon as the sun went down each night, the cold wind would pick up. We’d cook in a hurry, then jump back in the van to eat! On our last night, we cheated and went to the restaurant at the lodge in the park. We went to the “brewpub” side, and enjoyed some warm burgers, fries and cold beer!

There are a couple of shops around the lodge, that carry a lot of souvenirs, groceries, and camping supplies. We browsed around the grocery store and it seemed to have a lot of options and somewhat decent prices. We got our souvenirs at the little shops throughout the park, as we used one day to just drive as far as we could east to west and back. Hermit’s Rest had warm, yummy hot cocoa which was selling like crazy on a cold, windy day! The shop at Desert View had similar items to the other places in the park, but they have a Trading Post that has a great selection of unique items, many made by the local Navajo Nation.

In the central part of the part, The Village, we really enjoyed the Lookout Studio and Kolb Studio. These were great to look around inside, out of the pouring rain on one of our “bad weather” days. Lookout Studio has a great selection of books, which we certainly left with a couple of!

We had some very chilly but sunny days while we were there, and the weather seemed just perfect. The last couple of nights had overnight rain, and we were glad to have that van. On our last planned night, we woke up to an amazing scene - the forest was covered in snow! It was absolutely magical to go to sleep in rain, and then to wake up and pop the door open to see a few inches of snow!

We visited the Bright Angel Lodge on that icy, snowy morning. They have a little restaurant that serves a pretty inexpensive, basic breakfast and we appreciated something warm to eat, that we didn’t have to cook in the blustery wind!

That was to be our last day in the park, but all of the rain that fell before the snow was a layer of ice under it. When we first pulled out of the campground, the van shimmied on the slippery roads, and we just thought it might be best to give it another day. We had fun playing in the snow and the looks of the canyon in the snow, staying fairly close to the central part of the park and decided to stay one more night to let the roads catch up. The next morning, we had full sun and bright blue skies! We enjoyed breakfast from an overlook point and then headed back home.

We enjoyed five days at the Grand Canyon and, for a first visit, we got to experience a lot of the park. We had every kind of weather, so that gave us a chance to spend time in the shops and museums, which was really fun. We had a lot of really good weather, that allowed us to hike on Kaibab and Rim Trail. We saw a lot of wildlife, great birds, and stunning sunrise and sunsets! We’ll be back!