travel dates: July 10-12, 2017
To understand how we came to stay at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of our trip, to our day at the St. Louis Zoo. There I was, hanging out with penguins and whatnot at the zoo, when checked my e-mail and found a reservation confirmation from Trailer Village at the Grand Canyon. We’d booked this rare full hook-up inside the park campground a full year earlier to make sure we got a spot and had been very proud of killer road trip planning skills. This was still May, and we weren’t going to be getting to the Grand Canyon until July, so I thought the confirmation e-mail was a little…overeager on Trailer Village’s part.
Do you see where this is going yet?
Yeah, turns out we (I don’t know if it was me or Dave who screwed up, so I’m going with “we”) booked for June instead of July.
Oops.
Cue panic. Now it was a little more than a month away from our high season visit to one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and we didn’t have reservations. We called Trailer Village to explain, and, as expected, they were all booked up for our July dates.
But then! I remembered a Campground of the Week episode in which Kate Dunbar reviewed the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park! We called, and they had room for us! Phew!
So fast forward to July. We said goodbye to the family and drove and drove and drove through the desert, where it was 113 or so, and where the van did not complain much at all. We were very proud of it. We’d originally planned to break the Livermore to Grand Canyon drive into two nights/three days, but we decided to do two very long days instead so that we could spend another day in Livermore. So our only stop was a quick overnight at the Barstow/Calico KOA in Yermo, CA. We didn’t spend much time here, but it seemed like a nice campground and was exactly what we needed for our purposes: a place to sleep and some swimming after the very hot day. And the view was pretty.
And then on to the Grand Canyon!
Booking and Arrival
I already went over the booking part: they had a site for us when we called a month or so in advance, so we were very happy! The RV park is adjacent to an affiliated hotel, and it’s right in the town of Williams, AZ. It’s not hard to get to…unless you miss your turn and have to turn around in downtown Williams like we did, so be careful! Really, it was okay, but there were a few tense minutes. Sites are around $50/night.
Campsites
This is your very standard, rows of neat and tidy pull-throughs kind of campground. Roads and sites are paved with dirt in between and picnic tables (no fire pits here). Not much in the way of vegetation, and the sites are fairy close together, but everything is very well-kept. It’s not a hanging out at your campsite all day kind of place, but that’s not why you stay here. 
Activities and Amenities
We weren’t here enough to take advantage of much of this, but we did find the bathhouses very clean and modern. Looking at the website, they offer a nature trail, basketball, volleyball, and horseshoes. And they have an onsite pet kennel, which would be super helpful if you’re traveling with pets and want to go to the Grand Canyon for the day or overnight. I know a lot of campgrounds offer pet walking services, which is great, but I have two suspicious little terriers who think they need to be guard dogs, so I wouldn’t risk a stranger coming into our trailer to let them out….but they do fine when they’re boarded.
Location and Local Area
Now we come to the reason you want to stay here. Grand Canyon Railway RV Park is just over an hour from the Grand Canyon by car or a 2 hour and 15 minute ride via the historic train. We drove in, since we hadn’t originally been planning to stay here and a train ride wasn’t in the budget. Honestly, if you’re not planning to the take the train and can find a place to stay inside the park (there’s not a whole lot a whole lot closer outside the park, as far as I can tell), I’d go with that. The drive wasn’t so bad for our single day in the park, but I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do it every day for a multiple day trip. That said, adding in a train ride and maybe a night in a hotel on the canyon rim would be a really cool experience.
The other thing Grand Canyon Railway RV Park has going for it, location-wise, is the town of Williams. I love a campground within walking distance of a town, and Williams is an adorable one, right on Route 66
We got here early enough in the evening that we could spend some time walking up and down the strip, which made for a really fun outing:
And then we finished up the evening with dinner and beer at the Grand Canyon Brewery, right next to the RV park.
So, all in all, this is a great alternative to Trailer Village should you mess up and make your reservations for the wrong month. Or if you love trains!
maybe you would like to pin this?
I definitely love trains and intentionally booked at this RV park to take the train to the Canyon. I was there in October (went to the Canyon on Halloween) and loved the experience. The park is a Passport America member park so staying at half price was awesome. I highly recommend the park and train!
Ava recently posted…3 Days in Bakersfield, California
I’d love to take the train sometime!