No trip to the South Rim village would be complete without spending sometime at the ionic El Tovar Hotel. We were lucky enough to be able to stay one night at the hotel and explore it inside and out. This hotel is located directly on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and has been seen in famous photographs and movies for decades. Such as, the National Lampoon's Vacation during their visit to the Grand Canyon. Once you arrive the hotel does have bell service to assist you with your luggage. They will even store your luggage and deliver it directly to your room, without you being present so that when you finally end your day of adventure your luggage is waiting for you. However, El Tovar does not have it's own parking lot so we arrived early an were able to find close parking. I have to note once we found close parking we never moved our truck the entire time we stayed in the village out of fear that we would lose our parking spot. The hotel had easy access to the El Tovar dining room located in the hotel lobby. Along with a comfortable lounge where we spent one afternoon with Jaxon to escape the heat while we waited for our room to be ready.
We booked a Deluxe King room which was located in the corner of the hotel. The one thing I would request in the future would be a higher floor room. We looked out our window to the back porch and at no time did we have any privacy at all. That being the case we actually kept our curtains closed the entire time we were in our room. The room was equipped with a Keurig Coffee Maker and a Refrigerator.
Located only steps from our room on the back porch were daily Ranger Programs. It made for the perfect mid-day break for us. Jaxon's favorite were the critter chats which I highly recommend for young Junior Rangers. These talks only lasted about twenty minutes and at the end they would preform a Junior Ranger ceremony for anyone who had completed their Junior Ranger Activity Book. We utilized this time to run back to our room, grab lunch, change clothes and work on our Junior Ranger Activity Book. At the same time it also gave us a break from the hot sun as we sat back and relaxed on the porch.
While El Tovar is the most famous hotel in the park I was not as easily impressed and expected a much more grand lodge than what it was in reality. Yet in my absolute honest opinion nothing within the park could ever compare to the beauty of the canyon. So while a large part of the Grand Canyon village focuses on architecture and buildings I find myself still choosing locations within the park that give me the capability to gaze across the canyon. That is a view that cannot be replicated. So at night when I retreat to my hotel room to take in our adventures of the day I would always choose the hotel room no matter what level of stars, history or architecture it holds that gives me the ability to look out over the canyon just one more time before I retire for the evening. Eager to see what adventures tomorrow will bring.