The husband and I are thinking about driving to the Grand Canyon on Thanksgiving and spending a couple nights. We've lived in So. Cal. for seven years and have never visited the GC! My preliminary research seems to show a lack of restaurants. Do you guys think it would be possible to get a decent Thanksgiving dinner in the park or should we maybe spend that night in Williams or somewhere else, have a nice dinner, and then go to the park on Friday.

Also, will it be really cold there that time of year?

Unless things have changed, I would not recommend eating in the Park. The food is dreadful. It is high school cafeteria food style. The last time we were in the GC we stayed in the North Rim and ate at the lodge the whole 5 days we were there. The setting is absolutely gorgeous, but we still laugh about the food. I have not been to the South Rim in a while which is probably the only part of the park that would be opened at TG, but I understand the same catering is done throughout the park. You will love the Grand Canyon. I, too, am from So. Calif. and I love all the Nat'l Parks including Zion and Bryce. Have a great time.

I forgot to answer the weather section. It should be really cold, especially at night. North Rim is about 9000 feet; I can't remember what So Rim is, but I remember being at South Rim in the summer at night and being absolutely frozen. Take your heavy winter gear, especially for the evening. Call AAA or check a weather site for the weather.

I realize there have been mixed reviews, but we had a delicious dinner at El Tovar at the South Rim a couple of weeks ago, as well as a good breakfast there. Certainly not cafeteria style, it's a very nice dining room.

At the Bright Angel for lunch, they take your order as you go in and then deliver it to your table. The salads and sandwiches were very good.

I was just looking at Xanterra.com where you can make on-line reservations for lodging within the park. All lodges are already sold out for Thanksgiving and the couple of days following, with the exception of Yavapai and they have only 10 rooms left, so if you want to stay in the park, act quickly--and frankly, I would grab at the chance rather than staying in Williams--which we've also done. (3 trips to the Grand Canyon, all at Thanksgiving--once in Williams, once in a Bright Angel cabin, and once at Yavapai.)

We ran into this same situation last Thanksgiving and reluctantly took Yavapai, knowing it was somewhat removed from the "main area" of restaurants and lodges. We were quite happy with it despite it's remote location. Room had been recently renovated and was quite nice. The restaurant at Yavapai is cafeteria style, and food OK, but you can drive to other restaurants. The El Tovar dining room is quite lovely. Food OK...not at a par with the dining room appearance though....candlelight and linen. We've also eaten a few meals at the Bright Angel dining room and that too is quite nice--more casual than El Tovar, and food again...OK. I'm pretty picky and we did have some good meals there, but it's not fine dining. For Thanksgiving it'd be fun to go to El Tovar, but you'll need to make reservations for dinner now.

Good luck--hope you can get in. It really is worth it to stay IN the park, and in truth, we haven't found fabulous dining whether inside the park or out!

We've spent 2 Thanksgivings at the Grand Canyon and loved it. Had dinner at El Tovar which is a beautiful old place with great atmosphere...and our meals were just fine. We also found Bright Angel to be just fine for breakfast and lunch.

The weather was sunny and pleasant during the day, but cold at night. We had a little snow one night that coated the rim of the Canyon just in time for sunrise.

MaryZ, that snow sounds beautiful... Thanks for the visual! OO, we did book Yavapi on-line last night, to be safe. It says we can't make reservations for El Tovar until one month away unless we are staying there, so I guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed on that. We don't need anything fabulous, but the husband likes his turkey on T-Day. I'm sort of a vegetarian (seafood only), so I could care less about turkey myself. We'd just rather not eat cafeteria style. What about the Arizona Steakhouse if El Tovar fills up? Or, any suggestions outside the park?

One last question, how are the roads that time of year? Do we need to bring chains for our tires?? We don't even own any!

We also did not stay at El Tovar, but at Kachina Lodge, so we couldn't make the reservation for dinner more than a month ahead. I just called at the one-month-ahead date and made my reservation. If you call on Oct 25, I wouldn't think you'd have a problem getting a reservation. Have a great trip!

The roads were clear both years we were there. It snowed just lightly that one night and the sun melted it by mid-morning. We didn't have chains...wouldn't have minded being snowed in there at all.

Cool. Thanks for the info everyone!