Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim, AZ, 86052, 877-386-4383 (877-Fun-4-Ever) or visit/ lodging
Rates: Frontier Cabins, the most basic, start at $118 a night; Pioneer Cabins sleep six for $162 with a rim view; the most luxurious Western Cabins start at $172 a night.
Stay here if you: have ever wanted to see the full, monumental, breathtaking, can’t-believe-it views of the Grand Canyon’s enormous grandeur. Or if you need to rest up during your Rim-2-Rim-2-Rim hike.
The rooms are: not really the point. Adequate is one word for the rustic Pioneer Cabins, or the interior at least. One room has twin bunk beds and a pullout futon, another room with a queen, separated by a three-quarter bath, all very basic. But step outside the front door and you can literally fall into the canyon from the quieter and deeply forested north side. The South Rim can be a zoo with its lazy tourists, ice cream shops and bumper-to-bumper traffic. The North Rim is harder to get to and well worth the trip.
They put all the money into: concession fees to the National Park Service? We’re not sure where the big bucks go, but the main lodge is worth the price of admission. Sit in the great room with its two-story windows looking out on the canyon at sunset, write your postcards to jealous friends, and wait for your dinner reservation at the even more spectacular restaurant. This 1930s-era stone structure blends perfectly with the canyon and has an interior majesty that nearly matches the view down below.
The bottom line: Seeing the Grand Canyon should be a must-do for American citizenship, and the North Rim is the best place to sleep — short of camping at the bottom. Planning is essential, though, as prime cooler weekends in May and October are often booked up a year in advance. You have to elbow for reservations with major tour groups and rim-to-rim hikers, who often use the North cabins as a stopover before they make the 25-mile schlep back to their cars on the South Rim. Nestled amid the cooler, higher-altitude pine trees of the North, you can plan hikes down to the canyon floor, hide in a cabin and read or perch with a bottle of wine on the edge to absorb America’s most striking wonder. Michael Booth
