Sian Harrison said:
Thank you everyone for your, as always, very helpful suggestions.
Yes, I do know that it will be cold and possibly snowy BUT our daughter (the Geographer) REALLY wants to see Zion and we ALL really want to see the Grand Canyon. We COULD miss out Zion, but the Grand Canyon is meant to be the highlight of our trip, so this is our Plan A - unless the weather makes it physically impossible.
Plan B is indeed Death Valley, Mojave/possibly Joshua Tree (too far ??? ), Grand Canyon.
I agree with the priority you give to the Canyon. So lets consider a few things:
You will need to camp in campground that have electrical service available (ie full hookup). In that season, you will need to run your furnace and its blower 24/7 -- most RVs are poorly insulated. That will tap your batteries quickly, if you are not hooked up to utility power. Do NOT attempt to camp where you cannot get electrical service. You are traveling off season for RVs, you will need to assure yourselves that you can get a full hookup site in a campground. Y
ou need to reserve in advance.
There is only one campground with full hookup sites at Grand Canyon -- Trailer Village. It would be ideal for your purposes. Their website is
http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/Trailer-Village-705.html. At the Villiage you can use park shuttles to tour.
The next best alternative is to camp at Williams, AZ which is 50 miles south of the Park facilities at Grand Canyon Village. Williams, which is on I-40, has set itself up as a gateway to Grand Canyon NP -- it even has RR service to Grand Canyon Village. There are a number of RV campgrounds. Do a Google search on the term
williams az rv parks campgrounds. Make reservation at a campground that seems adequate. You can tour the Canyon by renting a car in Williams -- I recommend an Enterprise agency if there is one in Williams. You can also book a tour -- I would rent a car myself.
Williams is about 5-6 hours from Vegas on US-93 and I-40. The towns of Kingman and Seligman are worth a coffee break on the way.
As I said I thoroughly agree with the priority you give to the Grand Canyon. I recommend omitting Zion and concentrating on the Canyon. Zion to Page will be off season on lonely secondary roads at altitudes of 6000 feet. Temperatures at those altitudes will be some 20?F colder than those at Las Vegas. Snow is a real possibility. To my mind that is a bit much for a holiday. More in the line of a survival experience. :
If you want to pad out the experience, drive back to Las Vegas and then to Death Valley which is about 100 miles from Vegas -- at low altitudes.