Grand Canyon - Williams KOA Journey

Our site number 3 at KOA Williams/Grand Canyon Journey was pretty level. Everything was very well taken care of, and we had no issues with water, sewer, or electricity. All sites are pull-thru, all have a fire ring and a picnic table. The employees were very friendly and attentive to the property. The pool and hot tub were nice and very clean. The laundry room near us was small and costs $3.00 per machine. The store was large and well-stocked. The star-gazing when everyone's lights are off was spectacular. There's some road noise, but it didn't really bother us. The main and only drawback was that there is almost NO AT&T service. Our internet and phone service was awful for the two weeks we were there. The gas station next door offers diesel at competitive rates. We enjoyed our stay. If we're ever back in this area, we'd stay here again.

We stayed on the South of the park which would seem to be the old part of the park since the spots are very small and very close together. Pull-in and back-in spots next to each other so you can share a pedestal. Other spots look like pull throughs but are actually two spots connected to each other that would tecnically be back-ins. The North side of the park has large flat, long, shaded pull-through spots. If I could not get one of those I would not go again. WiFi was terrible and the Verizon cell signal was weak. Did not use the facilities except the laundry which has 3 washers but one of them was broken.

The location is reasonably close to Williams, but...the sites are extremely tight, with barely enough room for a 30' Class C and a medium-sized SUV. You will hear your neighbors. Most of the W/E sites are back-to-back, so you're backed right up to a neighbor about 3-4 feet behind you. The space between spaces allows just enough room for a picnic table and that's about it. The driveways in between rows are wide enough for 1 vehicle at a time.

The restrooms did not receive nearly enough attention, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. One of the floor drains in one of the restrooms backed up one evening, so they had to close all of the main restrooms for a bit while they attempted to fix it. The bathrooms also did not have good ventilation, so most of them were saunas when you walked in from previous guests using the showers. The dump station has no water available to clean out your hoses.

As far as connectivity, there is no T-Mobile or Sprint service at the campground (you may be able to get a weak, intermittent signal, but good luck getting anything to pull up) and the KOA WiFi is pretty much only usable in the office...forget trying to use it at your site. Also, the cable TV hookups at the sites are inoperable.

The staff was pleasant, but seemed overwhelmed. Took nearly 30 minutes to get checked in, as the 1 employee behind the desk was trying to manage bike rentals, convenience store purchases, and check-ins. The other staffer in the golf cart would have made better use of his time helping work the line in the office rather than showing people to their sites.

Sadly, for $43/night (with our KOA VKR discount), this campground was not worth it. There are other options in Williams that we will use in the future.

We learned upon arrival that the site we initially booked online for a 36 ft, 2 slide motor coach was too narrow and therefore we were moved to another site.
In order to fit into the new site, we had to back in the coach, so we could reach the electric/water hookups. In doing so, the firepit, picnic table and grill were now on the opposite side of the coach.

There were plenty of open sites and when asking if we could have one of them instead, we were told they didn't know how to change the site in the system and that they were also booked. We checked in on a Sunday and same empty sites up until Friday.

We discovered mice droppings in the exterior compartment of our coach and also inside the coach - which were not there previously, so we set traps and caught several mice in the exterior compartment.

After the site to the left and right of us filled up on Friday, we started having problems with running our AC. It kept turning off, giving a short power message, then turning back on. When reading the volts it registered 103 and at that point could even run a fan, much less the AC.

We then requested to be moved to another site, which KOA complied, but not before charging us additional cost for new site - even though we had to move because their electric wasn't working.

The internet was very sporadic. Sometimes it working fine, other times you could not get service. Phone service was also hit or miss.

This was an ok base camp for one night while we visited the Grand Canyon. Nothing exciting or scenic, but a good place to recharge our batteries and dump our tanks. The campground is right off the highway and as others have mentioned, just a bunch of red dirt that gets muddy and tracks everywhere. It was an easy hour drive to the south rim canyon village. For the price, I would not come back again.

Stil one hour from the closest portion of Grand Canyon which makes it a not-ideal base camping location. Apple maps took me down the dirt road in the back - turning around wasn’t easy. All ground covering is red gravel which is just messy in the wet. Nice wide sites in the full hookups section, conveniently located to gas station. Not many full hookup options at the Grand Canyon...if you need this is one of the only options. Watch campendium YouTube channel for some great tips on rv’ing the Grand Canyon, wish I’d seen it before I booked! This place is super pricey... but then again, the Grand Canyon has become so commercialized it’s hard to find affordable. Instead of booking here, use the three nights worth of booking fees to buy a champion generator and stay in the National forest closer to the rim. Totally worth it as the only way to the rim (hwy 160) gets PACKED, even off season. Was going the speed limit and was passed by a large tour bus and almost got ran off the road! Wi-fi limited to no stream or download which almost isn’t worth it!