Experience at Grand Canyon North Rim?

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Permalink Reply by Lea on April 8, 2008 at 4:00pm

I'm glad you asked - I'm headed up there this summer as well. Where will you be working? I'll be working in the gift shop.

I've never been to the north rim - I have been to the South Rim (my first seasonal position was there but it was back in the 90's) yet I hear the North Rim is very different. Less people for one thing. I'm looking forward to it. The people I've talked to so far seem pretty cool and I hear they have brand new housing.

Hopefully someone will respond to your post with more information.

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Permalink Reply by karlee on April 10, 2008 at 1:55pm

i've been to the north rim, i love it! it is very serene. there are so many places to explore, and you're right.. not many people.
i'll be working at the front desk at the lodge.
i talked to terri anderson about some of my questions. basically, the housing is one bedroom with a shared bathroom and 2 twin beds. they have poor cell phone service and suggest you bring prepaid phone cards, and they have a lot of employee's bring personal lap tops and have never had a problem with theft. they have wifi in the employee dining room and are working on getting it in the housing as well.
i just wanted someone with personal work experience to kind of give me a feel for it.. so we'll see. haha.

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Permalink Reply by sc on May 24, 2008 at 9:30pm

i hope forever resort treats you better then xanterra does allthough you will be working for some of the same personel like daisy hobbs so good luck with that, but the housing and area is nice. and for the theft comment yes there has been alot up there aswell as at firearm problems

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Permalink Reply by Russ on June 7, 2008 at 6:06pm

I worked there last year. It is a great place if you like hiking and camping. There are so many places to go explore if you have a vehicle, preferably a 4WD. The staff are a slice of humanity, ranging from young kids just out of high school to retired people, all economic levels from homeless folks to wealthy, christian workers to felons hiding from the law, etc. There are students from all over the world working there, especially Singapore, China, eastern Europe, and South America. Most are friendly and enjoyable getting to know, some are not. There is a lot of alcohol and drug abuse especially among the dining room and kitchen staff. Their philosphy is work hard and play hard.

The isolation gets to a lot of the people, especially if you don't have a car to escape from the mountain occassionally. There are lots of company provided trips to places like Zion, Bryce, Lake Powell and of course to St. George for shopping. Some people tend to self destruct either from the influence of their fellow workers or substance abuse. It is sad to see this happen. Lots of folks do get fired or just quit and leave in the middle of the night. Petty events become more significant after being their a few weeks so you have to take a personal self mental check occassionally and do whatever is necessary to get back on track.

Most of the jobs are hard work (physically) but not too much of a mental challange. Lots of people switch jobs after they get there because they are unhappy or just don't work out for the original job.

Overall, we loved working there and would be there again this year except for a family need to stay at home this year.

Enjoy it.

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