When they close the canteen at 4 p.m., they finish preparing dinner and set the five long tables for 12 guests each. Steak and vegetarian dinners are served promptly at 5 p.m. As you walk in, your reservation is checked off and you are assigned a seat. Our table included a maniacal group of men from Phoenix who make the trek annually, a German computer engineer on a solo trip, and a group of middle-aged women who were high school friends. One of them had been to the ranch on a summer raft trip, but it was so hot then that she had had to hike out in the night. She returned to see what she had missed.
Guests also can reserve a sack lunch.
Most of the lodge guests arrive and depart by mule. Lodging is included in the two-day mule trip. The Phantom Ranch is a group of small stone cottages clustered along Bright Angel Creek where it joins the Colorado River. The creek's gently bubbling water adds to the sweet canyon symphony of rustling cottonwoods and chirping birds. The cottages, designed by Mary E. Jane Cotter, were completed in 1922.