Are you planning a stay at Phantom Ranch on your next visit to the Grand Canyon? Check out our Phantom Ranch Cabin Tour Video and Photos for a peek at our stay. Staying at Phantom Ranch is a total bucket list adventure that I highly recommend if you are lucky enough to score a reservation. And staying in a cabin with your entire family is the perfect way to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with kids but avoid the necessity of bringing all kinds of camping gear. Plus, your cabin stay will include luxuries like your own flushable toilet, sink and even an Air Conditioning unit in the cabin which at temps of 120 degrees in the summer is priceless!
Read on to see how to book a cabin at Phantom Ranch, what amenities are included in your cabin, and of course check out our video tour & photos of our cabin!
After hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and staying at Phantom Ranch in our early 20’s, my husband and I were thrilled to return nearly 18 years later with our 2 children aged 10 and 12. Both times we visited were equally amazing, thrilling, and beautiful. Hiking the Grand Canyon is phenomenal and the views are spectacular!
Only 1 percent of all visitors to the Grand Canyon make it down to the bottom by either hiking or by mule. My kids absolutely had the goal of wanting to hike to the Colorado River from the South Rim and become part of that 1 percent of visitors who hike to the bottom. A stay at Phantom Ranch was a really comfortable and convenient way for our family to have an amazing outdoor adventure and safely hike down to the Colorado River knowing we could relax and unwind overnight compared to tent camping and carrying all the gear that real outdoor camping requires!
Plus, when you get to the bottom there’s lots to do …. you’ll relax after your hike of course, but can attend Ranger talks, star gaze at night, dip your toes in the Colorado on Boat Beach or splash around to cool off in Bright Angel Creek.
Phantom Ranch Cabin Tour Video and Photos
Check our video tour to see the inside of our Phantom Ranch cabin. It certainly isn’t the Four Seasons, but bunk beds, our own toilet, electricity, and a sink were total luxury items at the bottom of the Grand Canyon so we sure felt like we were living in luxury!
Amenities Included in your Phantom Ranch Cabin
– Bunk Beds
– Sheets, Blankets and Pillow
– Sink
-Flushable Toilet
-Electric Outlets (so yes you can CHARGE your cell phones here!)
-Window A/C Unit (Note: the A/C is weak but given the 120 degree temperatures at the base of the canyon during our August visit, we were beyond grateful for any level of air conditioning!!!! I think temps are just so crazy hot it’s impossible to cool anything down completely! )
– Heat in the winter
-Lockbox for all your food
-Picnic Table outside your Cabin
– Shower in a Central location (towels and shampoo/body wash combo available there)
– Breakfast and Dinner at Phantom Ranch Canteen (Note: This is an additional fee the cabin rental, but everyone who rents a cabin or stays in a Phantom Ranch dormitory can pay a fee to dine at the Canteen)
Here we are in front of our cabin before we hiked out of the canyon. We ate the 5 am breakfast and were on the road by 5:40 am!
Phantom Ranch is Historic
Originally a tourist camp in 1902, this site was visited by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913. Then the cabins as they are today, were built in the 1920’s by the Fred Harvey Company when they commissioned the famous Mary Jane Coulter to redesign the area which includes many of the original cabins as they are now. Phantom Ranch is truly a piece of history as today, it is for a large part designed just as it was in the 1920’s by Mary Jane Coulter.
How to Book a Stay at Phantom Ranch
Reservations at Phantom Ranch are a hot ticket and very difficult to secure. A lottery Cabins are sized for 2-10 guests. There is also an option to book a dormitory stay (male or female dorms). We stayed in cabin made for 4 people with 2 sets of bunk beds.
If you can book 2 nights, that would be awesome so you can spend another day exploring the inner canyon or doing a day hike along the Colorado River. We were only able to get the 1 night so that’s what we did. If I ever have the chance to book the trip far in advance, I’ll totally book 2 nights.
More info on the Phantom Ranch lottery is available here. They essentially book 15 months in advance by lottery and after those spots are filled, 13 months prior general reservations open up.
We were lucky to get a 1 night Phantom Ranch reservation about 10 days before our planned visit to the Grand Canyon. Basically for the month before our visit I would check the reservations website twice daily early in the morning and late at night and see if there was any new availability popping up during the window of our planned visit at the Grand Canyon. I noticed the closer we got to our date of arrival, the more and more random 1 night stays I found popping up as available at Phantom Ranch. Since people book their reservations well over a year in advance, plans change, general conflicts arise and of course big stuff happens when you book a trip so far in advance – like people get married or have babies so all kinds of cancellations definitely happen. So if you haven’t been able to secure that reservation to Phantom Ranch, don’t give up and keep trying!
Book reservations and read more about Phantom Ranch here: https://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/phantom-ranch/
