I imagine it would have gone something like this. We were heading to dinner so I don’t have an ending to that story. I wanted to look away but also wanted to keep watching. It was like watching an accident that was about to happen. Sharon wanted to video him so badly but I didn’t let her ( Note from Sharon: Grrrr….! WHY does he make me be RESPONSIBLE and APPROPRIATE?). He was reaching towards the elk and making noises to get their attention, even though there are signs and photos EVERYWHERE that say to stay FAR away from the elk and not bother them. There was a foreign tourist on the floor below us while taking this picture. Just in case you forgot that you were staying in a National Park, the guests right outside your room were usually there to remind you. If you wanted to use the toilet, the room was designed so you HAVE to close the door before sitting down. The same goes for the hand soap (with a Sharon selfie photobomb). The soap dispenser broke on me the second day). They are very focused on being environmentally friendly so the bath products were all in refillable containers (they had seen better days. The bathroom was basic with a tub/shower combo. There was a single closet area with a refrigerator, Keurig coffee maker, safe ( that we didn’t use since we had our PacSafe bag) and room to hang a few items of clothing or two jackets. The phone connection might have worked better than the WiFi connection in the room, which varied between slow and non-existent. There were three power outlets built in the desktop (that worked), a USB port (that worked) and two phone plugs (we have no idea if these worked as we left our 2600 baud modem at home). There was also a desk area with a single chair. The room was basic, with two queen size beds. There aren’t many rooms located on the South Rim so you’re going to overpay for a mediocre room and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s the simple law of supply and demand. I’ve already written a post about how this hotel was lacking in so many of the areas that I feel are important. We walked with our luggage (the did offer luggage service, we stubbornly declined) to the building, up the stairs and to our room that was located somewhat in the middle of the walkway. Upon checking in we were assigned room 6249 on the second floor. Parking does clear up later in the evening, so if you get a lousy spot just move your car closer when spots open up Luckily, we managed to snag a spot in that lot and left the car there for 2 days. We arrived just around the check in time of 3PM. Parking was a mess when we arrived as many of the tour buses were picking up passengers right in front of the Bright Angel parking area. PICTURESĬheck in for the Thunderbird Lodge is located in the Bright Angel Lodge, which is about a ten minute walk. I charged the rest of the room at checkout to my Chase Sapphire Reserve and earned 779 Ultimate Rewards points. I put the deposit on my Citi Prestige card and earned 779 Thank You points. A one night deposit for the room was due at the time of booking and cancellations can be made up to two days before the arrival date to receive a refund of the deposit. I booked 2 nights in a standard 2 queen / partial view room. To book any of the rooms on the South Rim, it’s easiest to go directly to the Grand Canyon National Park Lodges website. Note: You can’t select which floor you will be staying on and there’s no elevator to the second floor. Many of the rooms have partial views of the Grand Canyon. The two story hotel has 55 guest rooms with either a king or two queen beds. The Thunderbird Lodge was built in the late 1960s on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I booked a room at the Thunderbird Lodge for the first two nights. None of the hotels were available for all three nights but I was able to piece together two reservations that would cover our stay. I looked at the other hotels located at the South Rim. When I looked for a reservation ten months in advance, the nights we wanted at El Tovar weren’t available. Reservations open for the hotel up to 13 months in advance, however I wasn’t able to lock in dates from work for our trip in October until January. It only has 78 rooms and with over five million people visiting the Grand Canyon every year, reservations go pretty fast. Open since 1905, it’s the premier place to stay at the park. Originally, my plans were to stay on the South Rim at the El Tovar. The last trip was 10 years ago and we decided if we ever went back, we’d do it right. We’ve visited the Grand Canyon twice before, once as a day trip from Las Vegas and the other time as part of an Adventures by Disney tour. Visiting the Grand Canyon was one of the “anchor” stops during our trip through the American Southwest.
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