Desert View Campground

Pros:
• Very pretty
• Quiet
• Friendly host
• Was very underbooked when we were there
• Close to store and visitor center
• Close enough to the rim to walk there for sunrise or sunset (about .5 mile)

Cons:
• Far from south rim/Grand Canyon village (about 35 minutes)
• No trails anywhere nearby
• Only one small bathroom for the whole campground (even tho the campground was pretty empty relative to available sites, the bathrooms were ALWAYS busy, especially in the morning - be prepared to wait)
• Cell service was very spotty (Verizon)
• Even tho we booked a trailer site, the site they booked us in was really just a back-in car site. Had to park our truck diagonally and almost touching the camper as all 4 wheels must be on the pavement.

Would stay again, but it definitely wouldn't be the first choice.

I stayed here 2 nights on my way home from the North Rim. This is a very nice, small campground within an easy short walk to the Desert View Rim. The sites are level but don’t have much shade for RVs. There is plenty of shade for tents at sites. I was able to set up my hammock in a nice shady spot. There is a clean bathroom with flush toilets within easy walk of all sites. There are 2 spickets mid campground providing access to fresh spring water. This is dry camping with no hookups. There is a gas station at the campground entrance and across the street there is a gift shop and camp shop with an ice cream shop as well. It’s an easy, flat 5 minute walk over to the stores and rim for amazing views. The Desert View tower is here as well, although they were no longer allowing visitors to go up to the top of the tower. There were a couple of trails but they were not well maintained and difficult to follow. I was able to ride my ebike all around the area without much traffic since the day tourists coming to Desert View entered the parking lot from I-64 far away from the campground entrance. I had 2 bars with Visible in the campground that was enough to send texts. I was able to connect to wifi near the stores. It was a nice drive across the canyon from Desert View to the Village with several beautiful view points along the way (about 20 miles to the village). I drove to the village to use the free dump station since there is no dump station at Desert View. The dump station and showers are at Mather Campground 20 miles from camp, but that works out if you are leaving through the South entrance like I did. I did see lots of deer near Mather campground when I went to dump.

Great small and quiet camp ground. Amazing host! I was able to get our 19” Bambi into a pull through space no problem. Do plan on having your leveling blocks ready. Recommend any trailer using a pull through space. Put total length was over 40” (car and camper) but were able to negotiate no problem.

There are two water points inside the campground, one across from the camp host (this one is threaded, but wouldn’t plan on filling up directly to your tank, as you would block the entire road) we opted to use our 6 gallon jugs to top off.

There is also no dump station at this campground but visited a nice chevron off route 89 just outside the park and were able to dump for free.
There are also great canyon views a very short hike from the camp ground, trail starts at site 47-49.

We have a 19’ travel trailer. We are practically on the road. Our slide out is in danger of being hit. The site is really beautiful and if we could just move one of these boulders and pull in it would be great. As it is, it is nothing more than a wider spot on the road. It is so sloped that it took a Herculean effort to level. This is our biggest disappointment in any national park campground.

Just finished a 3 week trip, staying at 8 different RV parks/campgrounds, and this was by far our favorite. Camp host, Allen was great! Very friendly and informative about where to go and what to do. Sites are cozy (definitely smaller rig and tent friendly)….but there were larger rigs that we were surprised to see wiggly their way in. Clean and well maintained campground. Yes, it’s about a 40 min drive to the “popular” south rim visitor center, but that’s what we loved about it. No crowds, and 2 hikes right from the campground to the rim (a 5 min hike to see the sunrise, and a 10 min hike to see the sunset and watch tower) Drove to Mather and the fhu Trailer Village RV Park at south entrance to check them out, and found we were SO happy we stayed at Desert View. Cell service wasn’t as bad as some reviews said, but it isn’t perfect. No hookups or dump station, but would still stay here again over other places.

Well it IS the East rim of the Grand Canyon. Smaller campground that has length limits but we saw several larger RVs slowly maneuver through. However, it really made things tight. Overall, we loved it! The host, Alan was awesome! No hookups but the best spring fed water is available for your bottles. No filling RVs here. Our only complaint, which was a huge disappointment is the generators. Although only allowed 2 hrs in the morning & 2 hours in the evening, our neighbors put there's in the back of their site which placed it directly in ours. It was horrible! The noise & the fumes made this unacceptable. Alan was diligent about making sure they only ran it during the allowed times. But it just was horrible having that so close. Wish they would not allow them in such a small campground. Ruined everyone's experience. Although we didn't use the washrooms, there was 1 available. Site's a bit uneven but nothing bad. If it hadn't been for the generator. this would have been our best campground ever!

First the good… The campground was quite clean and the camp host who greeted me on the way in was very kind and helpful and most welcoming.
The not so good…these sites are extremely close by each other. Looking at the pictures that others had posted I didn’t get that impression. I only had one bar (at best) of Verizon on any of my devices. Not my idea of a great camping experience so I left and didn’t even stay one night despite having reserved 3 nights..