Last week our family had the awesome opportunity to take an RV to the Grand Canyon. We explored the area, marveled at the beauty of the national park, and enjoyed some quality together time! If you’ve ever thought of taking a trip there, here’s how to do it!
If you’ve been following along on our adventures, you know that we’ve been traveling full-time with our family for the past year and a half. Usually we travel in our minivan and stay in Airbnbs for about a month in each location, but we wanted to see what it was like to travel with our family in an RV.
I’m preparing an online course teaching families how to travel full-time, and I wanted to be able to share the RV experience there, too!
Renting an RV for Family Travel
RVshare.com is a site with a similar concept to Airbnb — RV owners list their RVs on the site and rent them out to vacationers! This way, the RV owners can earn some income from their RVs when they aren’t using them, and families like ours get to have a fun adventure! #winwin
RVshare set our family up with an RV rental for our trip so that we could give RV life a try and share our experience with you. And what a fun experience we had!
We left in the afternoon and drove about two hours to Prescott, AZ where we picked up the RV. We got a full walkthrough and demonstrations on how to operate all the features of the RV. Then we drove another two hours in the RV to our campsite right near the Grand Canyon.
The kids got a kick out of riding down the highway while eating pizza at the dining table!
RV Amenities
If you plan a trip to the Grand Canyon, I can recommend the Grand Canyon Camper Village as a good place to camp. Unless you really want to be remote, that is.
We had full hookups for electricity and water, a picnic table, and a campfire ring, and the campsite is located right behind a general store that is full of any supplies you might need or want. There are several restaurants within walking distance and a Starbucks just a few feet away. We brought plenty of food with us but didn’t really need to. I’m not a huge camper, but this is my kind of camping!
We had a peaceful first night in the heated RV (it was chilly outside!). The big kids slept in the bunk above the cab, the littles slept on the dinette bed (the table folds down into a flat surface and the cushions become the mattress), and Daniel and I slept in the bed at the back of the RV.
The next morning we woke up to…SNOW. Yes, it snowed in Arizona on March 10th. And not just a little — it snowed a LOT!
Well, the kids were thrilled. We had a full-on snowball fight!
Grand Canyon Staycation
When we connected with RVshare about an RV rental, they let us know that they were actually on the lookout for a family to film a promotional video in Arizona, so that family became us! Our videographer met us at our campsite and we did some filming, and then we all headed over to the Grand Canyon.
We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Yavapai Lodge Dining Hall and then headed to Yavapai Point to enjoy the view.
Yeah…not much of a view. Or ANY view, thanks to the weather!
Back at the campsite, we got a fire going in our campfire ring and made some s’mores. Nothing like ending a dreary day with a delicious treat, right?
The next day we woke up to pouring rain! We entertained ourselves all morning in the RV, using our various devices (yes, thanks to Starbucks, this campsite had great WIFI). At noon the rain let up, and we walked out of the campsite and across the highway to check out the IMAX theatre and watched a movie about the history of the Grand Canyon. We are roadschooling while we travel, and I absolutely love it when we can find educational opportunities that are directly related to whatever location we are currently visiting.
We left the theatre to find a clear, blue sky with the sun brightly shining so we decided we should take the opportunity to return to the Grand Canyon park and get a second chance at a beautiful view, which we got!
Gorgeous Grand Canyon Viewpoints
Much better!
We walked from Yavapai Point to Mather Point and enjoyed incredible views all along the way.
Just look at the difference from the first day to the second:
It started to rain again just as we got to Mather, so we took the shuttle bus back to Yavapai. By the time we got back, the sun was out again, and a beautiful rainbow had formed across the canyon!
I was so happy that we got such a gorgeous afternoon at the Grand Canyon. Back at the campsite, we built another fire and cooked hot dogs (and some more s’mores, of course).
The next morning it was time to pack up and return the RV. We had such a fun time, and renting the RV was a great way to experience RV life without the huge investment of buying our own!
If you own an RV and want to make some extra cash, or if you’re looking to try out an RV for your next family vacation, definitely check out RVshare.com! And if you’re in Arizona, don’t miss the Grand Canyon. It really lives up to the hype!
Read more about our RV rental experience on our sister site, Family Gap Year Guide: Get a Taste of RV Travel with RVshare.com
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