South Rim of the Grand Canyon and Snow

Today was another early start. By the time the sun came up we were already north of Flagstaff on to the way to the South Rim of the grand Canyon. There are two ways of getting to the south rim from Sedona. One is to drive to Flagstaff, then take 89 North to 64 west and enter the park through the east entrance.



Highway 180 North of Flagstaff

Another way is to drive to Flagstaff then take 180 west then 64 north and enter though the west entrance. This was the way we were going to go. According to the National Geographic book I have on National Parks, go west first, since that part of the park gets very crowded later in the day. Also, the west side of the Grand Canyon looks good in the early morning sun.



Our 260 Mile route from Sedona to the South Rim and back

The grand plan for the day was to drive all the way to the west end of the park, then turn around and drive east through the park, toward the afternoon do a hike. Then after dark drive back to Sedona via 89.



Weather info at the visitor center



More park info outside the visitor center



This was cool



There was information posted about the most popular hikes, this one is for the Bright Angel Trail



I did not see an official “welcome to Grand Canyon National Park” type of sign when we entered the park, so this one had to do



Cool icicles

We arrived at the park just before 8AM and headed to the visitor center. The ranger recommended the South Kaibab Trail as the best hike this time of the year, and one of his favorites. The South Kaibab trail is a good half-day hike that descends some 1150 feet in to the canyon with some spectacular panoramic views below the rim. Then the ranger said there was no way anyone would be doing any hiking at the park without some instep crampons. All the trails were iced over and very slippery near the top of the rim. Darn!



With so much snow at the park, each time we parked at an overlook, we had to climb a mound of snow to get out of the parking area



Then hike a snow and ice covered trail to the overlook



Some parts of the road in the park were slippery, especially in the morning



Ice on the West Rim Drive in the late morning



Some parts of the road were clear especially in the afternoon

And we almost went to pick up some instead crampons before leaving for this trip to Sedona after checking the Grand Canyon website and reading about winter the hiking conditions. But we really didn’t want to spend the extra money, not knowing if we would ever need to use instep crampons again. Had there been more time I could have gone to REI and JAX, the two big outdoor recreation stores, and shopped around. I saw a few types of instep crampons being sold on-line for about $30-40. I guess we hoped that at least one trail would be clear of ice when we got here.



I counted at least 5 or 6 snowmen at the park, this one was the nicest

We were told the store at the park sold many types of crampons, so we went to check them out. The selection was slim to say the least and the prices steep. Cheapest model was $75 and there were a few models that were selling for over $100. It also seemed the prices were a bit inflated, so not sure how much these would cost at a regular store, but I’m sure you can get them for at least $10-20 less.

The selection of crampons at the store was bad right now because they were sold out of many models and they were still waiting for a new shipment but with the bad weather and all the snow, the delivery was delayed. There would be no hiking for us today.



These guys could care less that there were people around



We drove to the west side of the park via The West Rim Drive stopping by pretty much every scenic lookout. There was actually more scenic overlooks on this road then the map showed. The cool thing about the winter season is that you can drive the West Rim Drive in your own vehicle. From late May through September the 8 miles of West Rim Drive is closed to private automobiles. A free shuttle bus is provided.

The 26 miles of East Rim Drive (Highway 64) is always open to private vehicles throughout the year. The rumor has it that in the future the whole South Rim of the park will be switching to a mass transit system, you will no longer be allowed to drive your own vehicle - so do it while you can I guess. This is because of the huge number of visitors to the park, the parking lots fill up quick and the overlooks don‘t have much room for parking. I’ve been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1991, and I remember how crowded the park and roads were. There was an actual traffic jam through the park. I was also at the park in winter of 1999, there was noticeably less visitors then. I never made it tot eh west side of the park neither of those visits. And today, on the last day of the year, this park was jumping. I thought it would be less crowded on New Years Eve but I guess everyone else had the same idea as us.



Ice covered scenic overlook, hold on to the railing



On the west side of the park the scenic overlooks are located near one another, from an overlook you can see other scenic overlooks - that doesn’t happen as often on the east side of the park, where the overlooks are further apart from one another



It was a clear day today. The morning temps were cold but the forecast was telling us it would warm up to 48 degrees. The sun was bright and warm, by noon it felt like it was in the upper 50 or low 60’s. Driving and stopping at each overlook actually is very time consuming, especially since some of the overlooks are further from the road, walking the icy trails to the overlooks took a lot longer, as we tried not to fall, slipping so many times on the ice. We could have used the instep crampons just to get out to the overlooks. And, seriously. The Grand Canyon looked very similar from each and every overlook. Some overlooks had a slightly better views, but not by much.

We brought some sandwiches to eat for lunch. By the time we arrived at Hermits Rest on the west side of the park, turned around to head east, it was already after 1PM. From there we drove straight through to the first overlook east of the west park entrance and started the process again of driving, and walking to each scenic overlook.



Most of the scenic overlooks were totally covered by snow and ice

Some of scenic overlooks were clear of snow and ice

By the afternoon we started to skip some of the scenic overlooks. The view wasn’t changing enough to justify a stop and parking the car and getting out to walk to the overlook was just taking too long. At the rate we were going, there would have been no way to drive to each scenic overlook and do a hike, not in the winter time with the short amount of daylight. And honestly, the vistas from the east side of the park I think is better then the vistas from the west side of the park. On the east side there are more unique rock formations and you can actually see the Colorado river down below in the canyon, you can‘t see the river from the west side.

We stopped at the last scenic overlook, the Desert View Point, to watch the sunset. The couple of overlooks west of this one were supposedly be better for watching the sunset, but we wanted to be as close to the eastern park entrance, for the drive back to Sedona.