Best Glamping near Jacob Lake, AZ

My wife and I took a week long road trip through Arizona, we made no plans and no reservations. Little did we know after reaching the North Rim Campground, we would find that the camp sights are books 6+ months ahead of time. The park ranger told us about the dispersed camping many mile away, as we were getting ready to leave line, a couple walks up and explained they had reserved a corner spot which contained 2 spots, because it was the only one available that weekend. they offered the unused sight to us!!!!!

We took the offer and were Blown away by the beauty that surrounded our site, we were far from others even quite far from our helpful hosts, the hiking is stunning and the lodge there makes some great food as well as a great place to buy some souvenirs.

Facilities:

Fire-ring, BBQ, Water nearby, AMAZING SPACE, plenty of tree coverage from the sun, close to hiking, and within a short drive to the best sunsets Arizona has to offer

We HIGHLY recommend catching the sunset at Angel Peak!!!! but watch out for the altitude change, its quite high at 8297 feet. Our hometown is at 2800 and the hiking got the best of me…

After years of trying to get a Phantom Ranch reservation, I was thrilled to finally secure a spot for myself and my husband in October, 2020. However, I was just notified that my reservation was arbitrarily cancelled because of maintenance. I understand that repairs periodically need to be made, but I have no recourse. My reservation, even though it was very difficult to get, can not be moved to a different date. All that time I spent securing the reservation, all the plans I made to travel to Arizona, don’t count. If I ever want to visit Phantom Ranch, I have to start all over again. Incredibly unfair and disappointing. If you get a reservation, don’t get too excited or make expensive plans to visit. It can be taken away with no compensation. So incredibly unfair.

Mather Campground Review

For some reason, despite never having been there before, I have always thought that the Grand Canyon is the most American of all national parks. So I planned my SW trip to start off here. We flew into Vegas and we got to drive through the Kaibab National Forest to get to Mather campground (if you can’t find any available campground reservations within the GCNP itself I would recommend checking for site availability at Kaibab). The surrounding area is much more forested than I had anticipated- so watch out for unexpected large wildlife! 

On our first night we arrived at site 260 in the oak loop slightly past sunset with enough light to find our site and set everything up. For sites 259-264 PLEASE LOOK AT A MAP to find your campsite, there is an unmarked turn to the right after site 213 to get to this section and we were quite confused when we drove through the entire main loop and then found ourselves back on a main road without encountering 260. Our site itself had a nice spread to it that made it feel relatively private despite clear visibility to the sites on either side of us. There was definitely enough room to set up 2 tents. The bathrooms were decent enough, however they are equipped with those fast-drying hand dryers that are LOUD and the noise carries well into the campground. For this reason alone I would try to avoid being in the near vicinity of the bathrooms, unless you can sleep with ear plugs in or are a heavy sleeper. 

There are apparently coin operated showers at the beginning of the campground area, but we didn’t even know they existed at the time so I can’t comment on those. The bathrooms DO have an outlet between the two sinks that people use for various purposes- one morning a lady was brewing coffee, another morning I used it to quickly blow dry my hair after spritzing it (I just have a pixie, don’t hog the sink area if you are going to take more than a few minutes!). 

Here are some tips that I have to share from my trip

-We were there the first weekend of June and it was perfect!  Cool temps at night, relatively hot during the day, and since a lot of schools aren't out yet the tourist situation was never bad. We never had to wait on a shuttle.

-Wake up early for the sunrise! If you are a light sleeper you will probably be woken up an hour before sunrise by your fellow campers getting ready to go watch it rise. You might as well join them. If you’re planning on hiking down into the canyon you should do it soon after the sunrise so your hike will be shaded and cooler than mid-day. We really liked the South Kaibib trail- we only went to Ooh-Aah point and back and that was a fulfilling hiking experience for us.  The signs about going up being hard are all true.

-There is a nice coffee shop by the visitor center that has reasonable prices on some grab and go type food- they even have a microwave to heat up sandwiches

-Only have one night to catch the sunset? Catch it in two places! We started our sunset viewing by hopping on the red shuttle, getting off at Hopi point to watch the colors in the canyon change(the shuttle does NOT pick up at this location going back towards the visitor center), then once you have had enough of watching the colors in the canyon change color hop back onto the shuttle to Mohave point to watch the sky colors change. You have a pretty view of the sunset over the river and the furthest outlook point here. Once the sky colors are past their peak hustle back to the shuttle pickup area to try to prevent having to wait too long for a ride back. By doing this you avoid the huge crowd of people waiting to be shuttled back to the visitor center at Powell Point (Powell point is right next to Hopi point so you have crowds from both locations trying to get back).

-Are you looking for a place to charge your phone and have wifi? The nearby Starbucks does NOT have public outlets.

-Elk are abundant! Leave them alone! Do not get close to them to take a picture- you will more than likely never look at it ever again so it’s not worth the risk of getting hurt!

-Do the Desert View drive and get a fry bread taco from the restaurant located in the desert view tower area (the taco wasn’t fried like you can get elsewhere, but it was still really good and toppings tasted better than any other fry bread taco I have had)! My favorite Grand Canyon overlook was at the tower area- really great view of the river. Pay attention to which parts of the park you are entering and leaving though. We did the drive on our first full day there, then found out we had to go the same route the next day to exit the park towards Page. It takes a while to exit the park going this way since the speed limit starts off pretty slow. Also, going east on 64 after you leave the park is stunning. There is an official scenic overlook that you can pull off and hike a ways to and putz around at the top of a canyon.

-We found that a two-night stay was the perfect amount of time for us since we didn’t want to do a ton of hiking into the canyon (the cautionary signs are a very good deterrent) and we were still able to spend a decent amount of time at many of the overlooks.

-If you are renting a car check to make sure that you can drive to all of the states on your itinerary! We rented our car from Budget at the Las Vegas airport location that you take a shuttle to and had no idea until we got there that we were only allowed to drive to Arizona, Utah, California and Nevada!  Luckily we didn't add on Mesa Verde like we were trying to at the last minute. The cars have a sticker notifying you that they have a tracker in them.

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Icemule Pro Large Cooler review 

As a Dyrt Ranger I got the opportunity to test out exciting camping gear from time to time. For this camping trip I was provided an Icemule Pro Large backpack cooler to review. I was extremely excited to try this out because the only cooler that I have is a cheapo 6-pack holder that you can pretty much just use to keep a few drinks cold for an evening. I liked that this was a backpack instead of a traditionally shaped cooler or a tote bag since lugging a cooler full of consumables AND ice isn’t the most ergonomic thing in the world when you are carrying it on one side of your body or if you need to hoist it up in front of you. Wheeled coolers are also great when you have a smooth surface to pull them across, but you definitely wouldn’t bring one on a trail!

Another nice thing about using this pack instead of a cooler is that it easily fits in places that coolers don’t. We had our car pretty full of suitcases and camping gear, so this just sat on the floor behind the passenger seat for most of the trip. This is currently the smallest bag that they have in this style, and it is huge! I was considering getting a larger size, but I’m so glad that I didn’t. These are the details on the site: Capacity: 23L/ 18 cans+ ice In Use Dimensions: 17" x 11" x 14" Weight: 3.2 lbs 

I used this cooler on my weeklong Southwest trip last week. For the first 3 days it was used solely as a car cooler and was filled with about 3/4 of a plastic grocery bag’s worth of food and drink and a big bag of ice that had it completely full. I would not want to carry this full on my back for a significant amount of time. The ice lasted almost 3 days when it was filled to the top with ice on day 1, which is pretty impressive considering that it was in a hot car most of the time. I am looking into loose ice alternatives since it was a pain to try to hack the ice cubes apart (they had fused together on day 2) to try to find what I wanted. Also, there isn’t a spout to release any of the melted water so you need to carefully empty the bag while preventing your stuff from falling out. I’m probably going to experiment with frozen water bottles or with the flexible ice pack sheets. 

I really enjoyed this cooler when I had just a short layer of ice at the bottom and a few drinks in it for hiking. It was an odd experience hiking in the treacherous heat at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada (go here in the early early morning or after 5pm its amazing!) and having brain freeze from extremely chilled water. 

Room for improvement

-The pads that are against your back while wearing this are quite scratchy- the first time I brought this on a hike I had to have my husband wear it since I was wearing a tank top that exposed my back to the pads.

-The chest strap(like on the majority of packs) is too low. When I have the chest straps joined together at their highest setting it cuts across my chest in an unfortunate way

-Like I said before- this thing is enormous AND there are even larger sizes!!! They only offer smaller bags in a crossbody style, but I prefer a backpack style.

-I think this line of backpack coolers is geared towards men and the crossbody style is geared towards women. This is evident in the color selection- this pack style currently comes in black, duct tape gray, olive, and camo. I like the black style the most, but I find it easier to find colored things in my storage room so I went with the olive. I do appreciate how little room it takes to store!

I would give this 4/5 stars on account of the minor details that prevented this cooler from being as comfortable as it could- mainly the itchy padding and the chest strap location. I probably would have given it 4.5/5 had there been a better color selection too (shallow, I know).  This definitely isn’t a replacement for my regular hiking pack, but I’m definitely glad to have it since I’m usually hiking with my husband so we can each have a pack. There are some accessories that you can purchase to use with the icemule that I think are worth checking out. I bought their drybag for storing unsealed food in the cooler and there is also a Icemule Pro Pack dry storage compartment that you can stash on the outside of the cooler. 

This item has a 15% price increase from the time I ordered it to the time that I am writing this review, so if you're interested in picking one up do it sooner than later and you should be able to get 10% off currently on your first order.

We love this area and would come again. We loved the forest feel and the trail riding as we typically come with ATVs. There is a gas station 5 minutes from the site

Great dispersed sites if you get about 1/2 -1 mi from 89a. The pines offer shade. Great cell service for some weird reason (verizon 4 bars?!) 80F summer temps are wonderful with the breeze and shade. Peaceful.

Had five glorious days here in Kanab, at Simple life. Cleanest, restrooms, fastest Wi-Fi, and best host.  They cater to smaller campers and vans like ours, so we made a number of friends and travel mates.  Wish we could’ve stayed longer.

Spent two nights here and are reserved for 5 more next week...Stayed in over area campgrounds that were full of generators and BIG rv's....SimpleLife only allows gens for 1 hour a day ... and no campers over 24' ... hung out with cool people like us...not like grandma!

Great campground. It’s a no frills campground but it has everything we need. Full hookups, clean showers with hot water, 2-3 bars Verizon, about 4 miles south of Kanab. This looks like a relatively née campground. On-site host. Reservations were easy to make. This is a great place to set up as home base for a few days while you explore the area.

I booked a reservation for several month from now. I called, emailed, texted, and messaged through the website because I wanted to clarify what type of fire ring I needed to bring. I never heard back from them. I’m now worried about staying there because I can’t get ahold of anyone for almost a month. I want to cancel my reservation now but I still can’t get in contact with anyone.

We were able to reserve a spot online. We arrived after the office was closed-The office left our paperwork on the cork board out in front of the office. Bathrooms are really clean, almost look like they were recently remodeled. Grounds were clean. Sites are pretty close together. Dog wash and park on site were nice for after hiking for the pup! We will stay again-

Campsite Review:

The North Rim Campground is the only campground located on the North Rim, and although massive, you HAVE to reserve your campsite 6 months in advance or it is likely you will not get one. We had planned our road trip way in advance for this reason. There are some “prime view” sites but they go very quickly. We ended up with a tent-only site which was on its own loop off to the side, but you only had to walk a few yards to look out over the rim. The whole park is beautiful, so don’t stress on getting a particular view.

The tent-only sites had their own designated parking spot not far from the site itself. The sites were close together but staggered so that you were not right up next to your neighbor. They each came with a fire pit, picnic table, and a leveled tent space. There are many bathroom locations around the sites, I did however look at the map online beforehand to get a site close to one. We were next to not only the “original” vault toilets but also “real” toilets that had sinks and a small mirror, plus a dish washing station.

There were a few potable water stations throughout, but keep in mind, if the weather is below freezing it is likely going to freeze and not work. It was snowing while we were there (which is unusual for spring) and the water did not work, thankfully we had brought our own. There is also a camp store with all sorts of groceries and resupplying needs (food, plastic utensils, fuel, candy, beer…..you know the necessities.) They have coin showers and laundry located near the ranger hut as well.

From the campsite, there is a short 2 mile hike over to The Lodge, which has a couple restaurants, coffee hut and bar, and gift shop. This is also where you will find the paths out to a few viewing areas of the Grand Canyon. Be aware it is very crowded, but worth the hike or drive over.

Since we only had one full day to hike, we decided we would take that day to hike the North Kaibab which goes down into the canyon. On the drive in we noticed the trailhead parking lot was completely full and overflowing so we woke up around 5 AM, made breakfast and got to the trailhead around 5:45 AM so we could get a parking spot. We went a total of 12 miles, 6 down (easy peasy) and 6 up (not so easy peasy), but the views were unlike anything I have ever seen! Keep in mind when going down that Yes, you do have to go back up and that last 2 miles from the top is nothing but switchbacks and they WILL murder you.

We did not see much wildlife while we were there, but it was snowing most of the time. They warned against leaving food out because of the ravens, so we made sure to keep our food up in the car. Take some time to visit the North Rim, we only had 3 days and I wished we had much much more!

Product Review:

As a Ranger for the Dyrt, I get to test products from time to time. At North Rim Campground, I tested the Primus Primetech 2.3 Liter Stove Set.

Now for the past few years I have been using my MSR Pocket Rocket for all my backpacking needs, but this trip was with my husband and was more like car camping than anything, so we opted to choose a little bigger stove. Primus has many variety of stoves, but we very much liked the sound of the new Primetech stove that has a nonstick pan and wind guard. It comes in a 1.3 Liter as well, but we eat a lot…

Never having used anything by Primus, I did not quite know what to expect. I ordered directly from the Primus website and received the product within the week. The stove and parts came all packed together in a nice carrying pouch that makes it very easy handle. It is bigger than the stove I am used to and probably not the best for backpacking with, but it is great if you have some extra room to spare and a few bodies to cook for!

At first, I will tell you, I got very frustrated. I could not for the life of me figure it out. I read the instructions over and over again, doing EXACTLY what they said to do. Well…that was the problem.

The set up was nice and easy, but lighting it was the issue. The instructions say to turn the valve 2 whole turns, then use the Piezo Lighter to light. Well I can tell you, after much trial and error, it needed much more than 2 turns. I originally thought it was the lighter itself, so we tried a different lighter and failed again. Long story short, I found that that you need to turn the valve until you hear a light stream of gas then use the Piezo Lighter (could be upwards of 5 whole turns.)

Once I figured out how to light the thing, I fell in LOVE!  The Primetech stove is Awesome!

Things I LOVE!! :

1. The whole thing packs up into itself and comes in a nice carrying case!

2. The gas valve makes it feel like you are cooking over your gas stove at home. You can decrease and increase the flame to you cooking needs without any effort at all!

3. The lid for the pot has an integrated strainer and the wind guard on the bottom works wonders!

4. The set comes with 2 pot, one of which has a non-stick coating that actually works! I have spent too many nights scrubbing the burned noodles out of a pot in freezing cold water as my fingers go numb….not anymore!! You can literally get a paper towel and wipe the excess food out of the pot.

This is one AMAZING stove set. We brought our old stove set on the trip just in case this one didn’t hold up to our liking, we didn’t even unpack the thing. I will be using the Primetech Primus stove for many years to come!

-Quick tip: Make sure to use a Primus fuel canister if you have one available. We originally attached a leftover MSR fuel canister we had and for some reason when connecting it the fuel leaked out a got all over my hand (it didn’t feel so good), when I attached the Primus canister later I didn’t have an issue!

Just spent one night tent camping, but it was a wonderful experience.

Spacious and comfortable, not overly busy. WiFi available at the general store, but it’s usually very busy so not as useful as you might like. Was able to get cell service also at general store, and nearby at the village and on Bright Angel Trail. Showers clean and functional, laundry machines available.

Nearby to stunning views, conveniences, and short drives from amazing overlooks. Well worth the stay.

Super clean bathrooms, drinking water, and right against the north rim of the Grand Canyon, great location!

We didn't have a campground reservation, but there were plenty of available spots. Two trails lead to the lodge and visitors center along the north rim. Beautiful treed campground with quiet hours, generator free hours, bathrooms, showers and laundry. Lovely, just lovely.