If you were just going to the GC with family

[JasonCleghorn]

for the day to sightsee/take pictures, which viewpoints would you hit?

This is a non hiking expedition...

[Jim]

Desert view, Yavapai, Mather, and Hopi, and a few of the western ones.

[chumley]

Shoshone Point. And yes this a hike. But my 73 year old pacemaker-assisted dad can make it. And you'll have the canyon to yourselves.

http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=2285&V=3

[azbackpackr]

Desert View, Lipan Point, Hermit Road viewpoints, Kolb Studio, Yavapai Point and the geology museum at that point. I'm a tour guide, I do this for a living.

[trekkin_gecko]

@chumley
I would love to take my mom to Shoshone point

[cactuscat]

Agree with Chum - Shoshone for sure. And Desert View for biggest, best views of the River.

[nikorock28]

Just keep in mind that Shoshone will be much more difficult to get to now with all the snow on the ground. Nobody had broken trail when I went to Red Butte, so I would suspect not too many have been out to Shoshone. I would expect a snow/ice hike if you go there, which may not be appropriate for a family type hike.

[cactuscat]

Good point Nick - however in previous winters Shoshone was fairly well-trodden within days of most snowfalls. At various times I walked it in winter boots with or without Yak Trax ... never needed snowshoes or Microspikes.
Maybe one of the locals could check it out just ahead of your visit and give a report.

[chumley]

@nikorock28
Indeed. Even a 1-mile, flat, dirt-road walk (really... calling it a 'hike' is a stretch!) is dependent on conditions. Be smart people!

[nikorock28]

The last snowfall was last Friday, so you would think it would be well trodden with all the visitation since then, but you just don't know. I hiked it once after a snowfall and there was only one set of tracks, which veered off from the roadway and I was trudging through 6" snow. I actually wouldn't have known where to go if I didn't hike it before. Granted that was the day after the snowfall, and many more days have passed in the instance.

[louie]

@azbackpackr

I'm a tour guide, I do this for a living.

Wondering if there are oversize parking spaces at Hermits Rest. I have a 25ft RV I’d like to park there while we go backcountry for 3 nights.

[azbackpackr]

@louie
I am assuming when you say "go backcountry" that you are going backpacking, to carry large packs and camp down inside of the Canyon? For that you need a backpacking permit. If you already have your backpacking permit for the Hermit Trail, then the BCO (Backcountry Office) will give you the gate code to the road to Hermit's Rest. Trailhead parking is definitely a large area, but you need to ask BCO if you can park an RV there. You definitely cannot camp inside your RV there!! Also, if you are going backpacking for three days, there is RV storage parking adjacent to the BCO, and from there you can take a shuttle bus that stops by the Hermit's Rest gate, and then take another shuttle bus from the gate out to Hermit's Rest visitor center. From there you will have to walk, I think it's less than 1/4 mile, to the trailhead, to start your backpacking trip.

If you were not talking about going backpacking, but just want to camp for free in the RV, you need to do that outside of the National Park. South of the village of Tusayan there are a number of dirt roads leading off into the National Forest. You can acquire a map for the Kaibab National Forest from the ranger station on the north side of Tusayan. Open weekdays, I presume. Anyway, you can drive down one of those dirt roads a couple miles and look for obvious pullouts used for camping sites. The map you want is the South Kaibab/Tusayan/Williams one. You can order it here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/kaibab/maps-pubs

Hope this is helpful.

[louie]

Got it! Thank you for the info:-)