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S-n-L's avatar
S-n-L
Explorer
Dec 08, 2013

How late for the Grand Canyon S. Rim

Hello everyone,

I am roughly planning our full time traveling for 2014. How late in the year can we plan to visit the Grand Canyon, S. Rim and not have snow or ice. Could we plan for late October or early November? Is too late?

Thanks for you input,

Leslie and Stuart

6 Replies

  • Thank you all for your replies,

    We will try and plan to be there no later than early October. We will be coming from Vermont and traveling along a northern route towards the west coast, then down the pacific coast to the LA area then east towards the Grand Canyon.

    Best,

    Stuart & Leslie
  • Consider taking the train from Williams for a 3-hour stopover at the South Rim.
  • Mid Oct. is fairly safe although can be quite cold at night. Sometimes a dusting of snow can occur but rarely worse. Towards Halloween and into Nov. its very possible for a big snow storm to hit. The highway to the N. rim is closed for the season after the first big snowfall and won't reopen until Apr. or May.
  • We were there the end of October first of November this year. Highs were in the 40's to 50's. Lows in the low 20's. It was comfortable but cold the last day when the wind started blowing 30 miles an hour.
  • The Grand Canyon is around 6,500' elevation at the south rim, and 7,500 at the North Rim. So they close the North rim around October, depending on the first big storm, they do not plan on plowing the roads out of there (67 miles to Jacob Lake). They get feet of snow at the North Rim, and normally the roads are not open until the end of April, but it changes year to year..

    I found out all about driving on ice back in 1987 when I thought "Thanksgiving is a great 4 day weekend to try out my new to me camper - lets go to the Grand Canyon!" And I got to see a lot of snow and ice. The canyon was foggy, but the road was open to those who wanted to get there. I had a friend check their newspaper for weather temps at Flagstaff AZ, looking for a good time to go back, it did not get above 60 until late spring (7,500' elevation).

    My uncle was telling me about a school bus driver from Pennsylvania who was stuck in the snow around Flagstaff in June, and was the only one with chains in his car, so the highway patrol said he could drive in the snow. So to answer your question - some Octobers can have snow, and in May too. But just a few miles south in Prescott, or Congress, at a much lower elevation it can be fine weather.

    Check out the Congress Escapee's RV park. Very large lots, and you can rent them for a low cost per day or month. There are Escapee's RV parks all over the south, near Yosemite, and one in Oregon and one in Washington. They are basically built for full timers by full timers. THey have a mail forwarding service, and other things you might find useful while full timing.

    Fred.
  • http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/weather-condition.htm#CP_JUMP_155163

    I was there a couple years ago in mid-september, and as we were driving in, there was a hail storm that left a couple inches of accumulation on the ground. It melted off in a few hours. But a couple days later as we were hiking on the Bright Angel Trail, a thunderstorm dumped more hail on us. Again, left a half-inch or so on the ground that took an hour or so to melt off.

    So read the web page, and bear in mind that weather in the fall is highly variable.

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