El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon National Park

A Classic Lodge on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

If you love national park lodges, the El Tovar Hotel experience is one of those things that grabs you the moment you step inside. The South Rim is only a short walk from the front door, but the hotel has a magic of its own. It feels like you’re stepping into history, and for us, it ended up shaping a decade of our lives.

A 2017 view of the El Tovar Hotel front porch. — A modern view, circa 2017, of the El Tovar Hotel front porch.

The Early Days of the El Tovar Hotel

The El Tovar Hotel sits about a hundred feet from the edge of the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The view is so big and so wild that it’s hard to believe anything man-made could compete with it.

Back in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon and urged people to leave the area untouched. He worried that even a small cottage might spoil the landscape. But soon after his visit, construction began on the El Tovar, and the hotel opened in 1905, fourteen years before the Grand Canyon became a national park.

Today the El Tovar is the centerpiece of Grand Canyon South Rim lodging. Other lodges, gift shops, restaurants, and a visitor center have joined it over the years, but this historic landmark still feels like the classic park lodge that started it all.

Our First Visit to the Iconic El Tovar Lobby

Our first visit to the El Tovar lobby changed the direction of our lives. We walked through the heavy wooden doors and saw the log walls, the old mission-style furniture, and the many animal heads hanging above us. Moose. Bison. Deer. Pronghorn.

The lobby looked like it had not changed in a hundred years. I turned to Karen and said, “We’re home.” It felt like the kind of place where Roosevelt might stroll through at any moment. That first step into the historic El Tovar Hotel sparked a question that later became our life plan: What if we quit our jobs and went to every national park?

Historic view of the El Tovar Hotel lobby with log walls and mounted animal heads — Early photo of the El Tovar Hotel lobby showing the period furniture, log walls, and mounted animal heads.

Hiking to Phantom Ranch and Returning to the El Tovar Grand Canyon

Since that first visit, we’ve stayed at the El Tovar several times. It can be tough to get a reservation since it’s one of the most popular Grand Canyon National Park lodges, so we often rely on last-minute cancelations.

On one trip, we managed to get a room at the El Tovar and a rare opening at Phantom Ranch, the cabins at the bottom of the canyon that date back to 1922. We hiked the ten miles down, ate dinner in the Phantom Ranch Cantina, spent the night, and then climbed back up to the South Rim the next morning. That trip still stands out as one of our favorites.

It was June, and the heat in the canyon can be intense. To beat the worst of it, we started back up the canyon from Phantom Ranch before sunrise. We reached the top long before El Tovar’s check-in time, yet we were completely spent. Dragging ourselves to the back porch of the El Tovar bar, a spot we still think of as one of the best places to relax in Grand Canyon National Park, we found a seat with a view of the canyon. We ordered brunch and tried not to fall asleep before our room was ready. It was the perfect mix of exhaustion and joy.

A Tradition of Mimbreño Pottery and Grand Canyon Railroad History

The El Tovar also has a gift shop that Karen loves. She always looks for the Mimbreño pottery and buys one piece to remember the trip. These designs are based on the dishes used in the dining cars of the Grand Canyon Railroad in the early 1900s. The Fred Harvey Company built the El Tovar so train passengers would have a place to stay once they reached the canyon, and the old railroad tracks still end only a short walk from the hotel. This connection to early travel in the West is part of what makes the El Tovar Grand Canyon experience feel so timeless.

Three examples of Mimbreño pottery from El Tovar Hotel — Three pieces of Mimbreño pottery from the gift shop at El Tovar Hotel in Grand Canyon National Park.

Why We Always Return to the El Tovar Hotel

Even though the hotel is more than a century old, the rooms all have private bathrooms thanks to a major update in 1983. When we visit Grand Canyon National Park, we always stop by the El Tovar even if we aren’t staying there. The dining room is nice, but we prefer the warm, casual feel of the bar. After so many years and so many memories, it has become one of our favorite places in the entire national park system. And it’s easy to see why so many people say the El Tovar Hotel is one of the best places to stay at the Grand Canyon.