North Rim Lodge is the only hotel located on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. It is architecturally dramatic, but is poorly managed and has become increasingly expensive. This comprehensive video looks at the four room types, explores the dining options, and desribes some of the issues that concern guests.

Purposefully, when you arrive at North Rim Lodge, your view of the Canyon is blocked until you enter the building, go through the lobby where you are confronted by awe inspiring views through the oversized windows in the sunroom, dining room and porch with huge outdoor fireplace.

The original North Rim Lodge was built by the Union Pacific Railroad in a Spanish style with two stories and a second floor observation deck.

Unlike the South Rim lodges, the North Rim sits right on the rim and was designed to suck visitors through the lobby to the sunroom that features spectacular views of the Canyon. The dining room also provides the best views of any restaurant at Grand Canyon. Designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and opening in 1928,, with 20 deluxe cabins (now the Western Cabins) and 100 standard cabins. A few additional cabins were built over the years. It was designed to have separate lodge building and cabin accommodations.

The original lodge burned in 1932, and a new lodge, with a single floor, pitched roofs to better deal with snowfall and much of the original stonework, re-opened in 1937. All but two of the original cabins survived the fire. It has changed little since 1937 and is considered to be one of the most intact rustic lodges in the National Park System.

There are four room types available at the Lodge.

First, formerly known as the Deluxe cabins, the Western Cabins are the most desirable. They feature a gas fireplace, heater, two queen beds, a bathtub, which is great for soaking after a rim to rim hike, plus a pleasant porch for relaxing in the evenings. The Western Cabins also have the best rodent-proofing of any of the rooms at the Lodge.

Second, for less than half the price of the Western Cabins, the motel rooms are the least expensive. These don’t have the historic provenance of the cabins, and these are some of the smallest motel rooms I have ever seen, but they have the basics, one queen bed, a refrigerator, and a tiny bathroom with a shower stall.

Third, moving up in price a small bit are the frontier cabins. These are duplex units with basic accommodation. They can be quite quaint, but are loud, sometimes it seems your neighbors are in the same room as you. Plus, many have rodent problems.

Finally are the Pioneer cabins. These are slightly larger than the frontier cabins, but have the same construction and issues. I have only stayed in a Pioneer cabin once and had no major issues, but again, reviewers complain of the same problems as the Frontier cabins.

The dining options at North Rim Lodge have their special circle in hades. There is only one sit-down restaurant and reservations are required. Many guests are unaware of this and end up crowding around the host’s desk hoping for cancellations. They are not missing much. The dining room has a better view of the Canyon than any other restaurant at Grand Canyon. But the positive comments end there. The prices are the same as the El Tovar dining room on South Rim, but the quality is abysmal. The only other dining option is the deli, which has no real seating area and was similarly panned by the people who ate there. If you hike to North Rim, you are stuck eating at the Lodge. If you drive, you will be better served by bringing your own food.

By now, you can tell that I am not a fan of the operation of the North Rim Lodge. Aramark is in its second year of operating the lodge and the problems are numerous–from rodents in the rooms, to lines at check-in. Rather than me listing my many concerns, there are plenty of accounts online, I will give you just one example from my visit this year: They had no hand soap at the entire facility. Now, this sounds like a mere inconvenience, but imagine eating at a restaurant where the food preparation staff do not wash their hands after using the restroom. You risk getting sick, and that is what happened to me this year, I got sick after a meal in the dining room and had to cancel my planned rim to rim hike due to intestinal distress. Whether this was caused by poor hygiene or poor food preparation, I do not know, but it was an inglorious end to a planned epic hike.

Compounding these problems is that the Park Service keeps approving increases in room rates. Currently, the cheapest motel rooms are about $200 a night with tax and the most expensive Western View Cabins are $522. Last year, the standard Western Cabin rented for $256. This year it has increased to $388, a more than 50% increase in one year. And, despite Aramark’s horrible administration of the North Rim Lodge, this year the Park Service gave them a 15 year contract.

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