Monday, April 25, 2005

We are in Tusayan (map), the small community at the south entrance to Grand Canyon National Park.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon yesterday afternoon, thinking we would like to spend three nights here. We were expecting to stay in the Mather Campground operated by the park service, with access to the park's transportation system. When we stayed there last year in a rental RV, we had carefully scoped it out to ensure that Odyssey would fit and could navigate the roads.

Unfortunately, the park service is enforcing a strict 30' length limitation on motorhomes. This ticks me off just a tad, because there is no such limit for trailers. So there are clearly people staying at Mather with 18' trucks pulling 30' trailers, for a combined length of nearly 50', but our single-unit 39' length precludes us. Harumph. I do understand it, though, considering how awful some MH drivers are, and how poorly some units turn. Also, many coaches are pulling cars behind them. I'd much rather see them enforce a combined length limit, but I'm sure there would be a number of people abusing that privilege.

We did try to get in to "Trailer Village," the concessionaire-operated full-hookup campground also within the park boundary. Unfortunatley, they had only one space available (due to a cancellation -- they are otherwise sold-out) and it had low-hanging trees that could not accomodate Odyssey.

Reluctantly, we exited the park and landed here, at the Camper Village RV Park. The nearby Forest Service campground is still closed for the season, and dispersed opportunities in the forest were risky -- it's been raining the last few days, and all the dirt roads are bus-trapping mud puddles at the moment. The good news is that this campground is mostly empty, so it was fairly quiet and we did not have anyone right next to us.

We will drive back into the park today, and see if they have another space at Trailer Village. If not, we'll spend the day in the park, and likely head south toward Flagstaff at the end of the day.

1 comment:

  1. your rig just doesn't seem suited for the kind of camping you prefer. i can't imagine taking such a huge rig into the beautiful spots where we camp with our vw westy. do you ever fantasize about where you could go - and with such ease - in a smaller, lighter rig?

    your bus is awesome - love the paint job! - but i wouldn't be happy if you parked next to me at a primitive campground.

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