Christmas Break - Grand Canyon?

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Originally Posted by AZ Pete

You are planning a flight? I lived in Sedona for nine years and traveled to GCNP often. If all goes well, you may make it in 2 1/2 hours, on dry pavement, week days and light traffic. Winter driving is going to take longer, as will weekends/holidays. Still doable for a day trip, but I had rather stay over night at the canyon.

Haha, no flights. Just many hours in the truck.

Thanks for the info on distances. The Googles said 2hrs, so that's what we were basing it on. 3 hours+ is an awfully long day trip.

It's going to be weather dependent, though, on where we should go (Sedona or Grand canyon).....

[Jakieboy]

RV stay near the bay near Monterey??

We have attended the Monterey Historic Race Car Weeks at Laguna Seca for the past 30+ years. When there are no racing events there, the RV sites are under control of Monterey County, and they can be most helpful. Partial hookups only, and most sites are reserved years in advance for the racing events.

We also like the KOA just up the coast near Santa Cruz. Full hookups there with all the usual amenities of a typical KOA park. 20 minute drive to Monterey or Carmel.

[corocky1998]

We went to the Grand Canyon last Christmas Holiday in our fifth wheel. We actually made a trip of it, stayed at Distant Drums RV park outside of Sedona over Christmas, great RV park. We checked out some wineries, Sedona, Jerome, the casino at Distant Drums, they gave us a nice Christmas gift, $$$. The weather there was great, some colder nights, but tolerable.

Then we went to Grand Canyon, Trailer Village RV Park, after Christmas for 3 nights. I think the low's were in the 20's and highs in the 40's. Burned through some propane, but no issues. Did loose the drain hose, I left it on after I cleaned the tanks when we got there and some water that was in it froze and broke the hose. We got snow one night, made the canyon look awesome. We liked camping right in the park because you are minutes away from the canyon.

It's the desert, so the weather can always change, and it's a dry cold, with the sun out 30 F in AZ is like 50 F in PA where I grew up on a winter day. Bring layers and sunscreen.[emoji16]

As others have mentioned the drive may be the hard part. Make sure you have plenty of days to get home if storms come through, we cut our trip early because a storm hit New Mexico and Colorado New Year's eve, snowed about 12" on I-25 and New Mexico does not plow the highways like Colorado does.

I would also check out Meteor Crater too if you have time. We stopped for about 2 hours and took the tour.

Good luck, if you go have a safe trip and keep the propane topped off!

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Thanks for the replies! Especially corocky. Very helpful. We're fairly adventurous, IMO (especially for having a 2yo little girl). We're pretty cozy in our little fiberglass box.

Some years (uh, 18 of them, methinks) ago we went and don't recall any issues, but it was cold enough for the water hose froze.

So a follow-up.... Any thoughts on Pinnacles NP?

[Jakieboy]

corocky1998 - Good advice all around. When we camp in the upper elevations in the dead of winter we make sure that: (a) we disconnect our fresh water hose, and (b) we make sure we have plenty of propane to supply the furnace. Our rig also has a heated underbelly that keeps all of our holding tanks from freezing. We have endured several nights with temps well below 10 deg. F with no problems. I can't imagine much worse than trying to dump frozen sewage from your black tank after a cold night.