Mather Campground — Attraction in Four Corners States

Key Takeaways: Pros: Quiet and peaceful atmosphere, beautiful trees, fire rings provided, clean restrooms. Cons: Extremely cold during spring break, limited water/dump stations, no electrical hookups, potential for challenging RV maneuvering, generator hour enforcement issues, some traffic during quiet hours. Recommendations: Check the weather forecast carefully, consider requesting a larger campsite if needed, bring your own firewood or purchase it at the general store, be prepared for cold temperatures, and be aware of generator and quiet hour regulations.

Mather Campground offers a truly peaceful and scenic experience, nestled amongst beautiful, towering trees. The quiet atmosphere is a major draw, providing a welcome escape from the hustle and bustle. Most campsites are equipped with fire rings, though be aware that you'll need to purchase firewood from the nearby general store or bring your own, as gathering is prohibited. The campground layout, while picturesque, can be a bit challenging for first-time RVers. The dense tree cover, while creating a lovely ambiance, makes navigating to some campsites a potentially anxiety-inducing experience. Some sites are more spacious than others, so if you're concerned about maneuverability, consider requesting a larger site when booking. Our spring break visit was marked by extremely cold temperatures, dipping into the 20s or below. If you're a fan of frigid weather, you'll feel right at home. However, if you're accustomed to warmer climates, be prepared to bundle up. Even with generator use, we struggled to stay comfortable. Speaking of generators, the designated hours (7-9 AM and 6-8 PM) are strictly enforced, or at least they should be. We experienced some frustration with other campers disregarding these rules, and were even wrongly accused of breaking them ourselves. Quiet hours are from 10 PM to 6 AM, but be prepared for some traffic in and out of the campground during these times. We observed a fair amount of vehicle movement.

Water and dump stations are conveniently located at the campground entrance, to the right leading to occasional waits. We experienced a 20-minute wait. No electrical hookups are available at any of the campsites, but multiple clean and well-maintained restrooms are centrally located. Despite the cold and the generator/traffic issues, I wouldn't consider staying at Mather Campground again. The serene environment and beautiful natural setting are undeniable. However, future visits would require careful consideration of the weather forecast. It's worth noting that tent campers seemed to fare well in the cold, so perhaps my preference for warmer temperatures is simply a...

Mather Campground is a great place to stay to see the Grand Canyon. It's a large campground, but laid out so that you have space to yourself, with plenty of trees and local wildlife. We saw several elk and birds at the campground. The local ravens will get any food you leave out that isn't in a hard sided container, and will peck open any plastic bags thinking they might contain food, so be prepared to stow all that away unless you are right there. We stayed in 2 different sites for 2 days each. The campground sites each have a paved pull through driveway for your vehicle, fire ring with a cooking grate, and a concrete picnic table. The table is a larger than average size, so elasticized tablecloths won’t fit. There is no electricity or RV hookups at the campground. There are nice heated restrooms with flush toilets and sinks (with only cold water), and hand dryers not far from every campsite. The bathrooms were generally quite clean.There is a dumpster for small trash right outside the bathrooms, and a larger dumpster further down the loop for bigger trash bags. If you come in winter or early spring like we did, be aware that many of the outside water taps will not be turned on or will be broken from freezing. You can get water out of the bathroom sinks, but will have difficulty filling large containers there. You may have to search a while to find an outside water tap that works, so I would recommend bringing a large water container with you. The water tastes great. There is a dish washing sink by the bathroom, but we didn’t use it as it was so cold. There is a great free shuttle system that will take you around anywhere in the park. Parking is very limited, so I would highly recommend planning to leave your car parked and using the shuttles. The shuttle stop for the campground is right by the entrance. The only place I saw that had long lines to catch a shuttle was for the rim trail red line shuttle. I think it's better to hike the rim trail yourself if you can, and then just take the shuttle back. The trail is not difficult and is paved almost the entire way. Be prepared for variable weather! We came in early April, and woke up to snow and had very cold temps for a couple of days (down to 9 degrees F at night). Lots of people think the area will be warm because it is desert, but fail to take in account elevation and weather patterns by the canyon. Many camp sites may also be muddy in the spring because of melting snow, so be prepared for that. We had decent cell service with T Mobile almost everywhere in the park, including the campground. Of course the Grand Canyon is spectacular, and well...

Good campground, lots of restrooms that were fairly well maintained, and helpful staff at the office. Nice to have a firepit and lots of elk and deer wondering around! (and ravens looking for any chance to get at your food!).

However, the one shower block was a long walk from our camp at juniper loop, AND you had to pay to shower. Maybe that's the American way but it's not something I'm accustomed to, what am i paying to camp for if it doesn't include a shower? you may as well camp in the wilderness. The general store and a restaurant/tavern is a 10 min walk away which is convenient, and there's a shuttle stop going eastbounds towards the visitor center. It's a shame the shuttle bus doesn't stop closer to the camp going westbound.

Also, please be aware, they allow 6 people but only 3 tents, yet there's tons of space at each site for multiple small tents, so I'm not sure why they restrict you to 3 tents (i understand not wanting huge parties of people, that's fine! But why the #of tents?) . This wasn't clearly advertised to us when i booked on the recreation.gov website, so we turned up with 5 small 1-2 person tents for 5 people (i.e. 1 small tent each, because we'd all travelled from separate places and thought this was sensible given covid risks). We got threatened with a fine or siezure of our property, and had to cram all of our things and selves into small tents. The 3 tents just seems like an arbritraty rule??

Beware! We also ordered the "xanterra shuttle taxi" from our camp to maswik lodge to catch a Groome shuttle back to flagstaff, but the driver never turned up. (to be clear: this is the resort-run taxi service in grand canyon village, not the free shuttle buses, which were great!). After they were late, We phoned them and they said the driver didn't know where the campground was and it would be another hour! Grand canyon village is a small place, in 1 day i basically knew where everything was, so they obviously just messed up. We had to rush to basically hitchike to our shuttle stop and nearly missed our ride to flagstaff (thankfully they waited for us otherwise we'd have been stuck). There's nowhere to review the taxi service but i wanted to say it somewhere to help warn...