Coconino Rim Road Dispersed Camping

Due to heavy snow covering a hill on the last mile of Forest Rd. 307 and closures at the east entrance of the park, we ended up pulling off in a turnout on 307 right off of Hwy 64. With the exception of this little snafu, we really enjoyed a quiet, star-filled night in the Kaibab. The drive out to 89 in the morning along the Little Colorado River Gorge at sunrise was incredible and we would highly recommend it!

This was one of the best locations we've ever stayed, and we boondock pretty much exclusively! Coconino Rim road is right off Desert View drive, and starts in the National Park. After a mile or so it crosses a cattle guard and you are in the Kaibab National Forest.

We stayed the week of Thanksgiving, and it was never full. There were plenty of locations to choose from, with plenty of space for our rig. The temps were in the 20's at night, and 40's/50's during the day, with sunshine the entire time!

There's a cell tower on Coconino Rim road so we had amazing speeds on both Verizon and AT&T. The road did stay fairly busy, but overall it was still really quiet!

Our location was just past the 2nd cattle guard, and we were the only ones around.

Dump and water can be had at Mathers Campground, although they do close this during the Winter. It was actually frozen (as was our dump valve) on our way out, making the end of November, the end of season here.

We stayed here for 3 nights and we really enjoyed it. We entered the Grand Canyon at the south entrance and went about 10 miles Into the park until you turn right on a side road. You go about 2 miles on a dirt road before you leave the Grand Canyon and are in the National Forest area where you are allowed to camp. (There is other ways in without entering the NP as well). We found a nice flat stop and had the best cell phone service of any boondocking spot to date. There are spots in the trees if you want shade or in the sun if you need solar!

This was a great spot just outside the National Park boundaries. We got there by going through the main entrance to the park and going East on highway 64. It is about 11 miles from the South Rim visitors center but much closer to other view points. We left a tent there to save our spot and then drove the RV to different viewpoints for sunrise, sunset, and stargazing! There were only a few other campers there but the spots are spaced out enough that you hardly notice anyone else. We will definitely be back someday!
Best spot for sunrise: Grandview Point
Best spot for sunset: Navajo point

We wheeled into GRCA without any plans of where to stay. We checked every campground within the park and COVID/construction had one closed and the other was booked solid. We even checked for cancellations in person with no luck.

This was our first trip to the Grand Canyon and everything g we read said don’t wing it, make reservations. We winged it and found this dispersed campsite on Campendium. We parked at the village, hiked some of the rim trail and then thought we better get our site in case it’s busy or full while it’s still light and then have to drive all the back to the nasty looking RV Park in Valle.

We were not disappointed. We found the site easily down the dirt road. The road was well maintained. The campsites are just outside the boundary of the National Park but within the federal forest right when you go over the cattle guard in the road. We were there with one other site occupied. We couldn’t see another person and had time to relax in our camp chairs. We heard Elk bugleing at night in the early morning hours. What a sound at night.

This site was perfect with nobody else around. We woke up, had our breakfast and continued our sight seeing trip up desert view road and all the pull offs to see the Grand Canyon. We were fortunate and with it being early morning we ran into very few people along the whole route until we got back close to the village. The east entrance is still closed so you have to back to the village and out the south entrance.

We also had the best cell service we found in the park right in this campsite.

Several sites for RVs/tents off of a long dirt road within ~20min drive to South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Most of the sites are really spread out & shaded. Great option to be close to the South Rim activities. We stayed Aug 3rd and the road 64 east will be closed for roadwork until further notice... so if you’re planning on traveling to North Rim / Page, AZ plan accordingly!