We visited the North Rim of The Grand Canyon back in 2012 during the summer monsoon season. We enjoyed watching the storms travel across the canyon. It was cold evenings and mornings at the North Rim in August, so we anticipated cool weather at the South Rim in November. We had reservations to tent camp for 3 nights, but as we watched the weather forecast, the stars were not aligning for camping: Snow with lows in the teens and highs in the low 30s. We cancelled our camping reservations and splurged on a room in one of the lodges at the park, and boy were we glad we did! It was cold; bitter, bone chilling cold. I imagine that we enjoyed our visit to the South Rim in November, with relatively few visitors much more than we would the hustle and bustle of the summer months; despite the bitter cold.
The cold was quite the shock to our systems, as we were just hiking in Tucson the day before with temps in the high 80s. We had planned to visit the western side of Saguaro NP in the morning before heading to the Grand Canyon, but had decided to head north early because of the weather predictions. We first encountered rain, followed by a wintry mix, before reaching snow near Flagstaff. We past 3 accidents on I-17, we took it slow, and were glad we left early.
Magnificent and imposing in appearance, size, or style; this is the definition of grand. What a fitting name for this certainly magnificent canyon. It is mind boggling to ponder the amount of force and time required to sculpt this imposing masterpiece. The rocks continuously change color as the light moves across them. The play of light and shadow continues until the night falls and stars twinkle in the sky. It is grand indeed.
We had hoped to do some hiking within the canyon, but alas, the trails leading down were covered with ice and I’m not up for that kind of risk. We hiked along the rim. The shuttle system makes it easy to hike from one location to another, and return via shuttle. We saw plenty of elk during our visit. Our last evening we were walking to go eat dinner and a heard of elk appeared very close to us, with the young elk running and playing. An older elk took the lead and led the heard across the road…on the railroad track. It was fun to watch traffic stop as 20 or more elk cross the street on the railroad track.
