weather in the grand canyon

“has it been unusually rainy no the north rim of the GC lately?
im going there on Friday.”

“Yes,
The temps are only around 80 right now. The whole Northern Arizona was hit with severe thunderstorms and flassh flooding Sunday and Monday. Looks like tommorow there is a 50% chance of thunderstorms as well. I'd bring a rain coat just in case.”

“I'm heading to the Grand Canyon in November - can't wait.”

“Appalonia, don't you read your own posts??

Go back and read Camping in the Kaibab


geez”

“Also read Permits: How to get one

Also, CHECK YOUR EMAIL

(if you ask a question, read the answer)”

“It's been raining dead bodies from sightseeing planes and helicopters at the GC.

...Sorry”

“HA HA HA were they black cia helicopters?”

“Iit always rains in Northern Arizona this time of year. Pretty mornings and cloudy afternoons--perfect weather.

The newspaper said a couple and their two year old son were killed by a flash flood hiking in to Havasu the other day .”

“have I ever told you guys the red rain story?”

“Hiking into Havasu? Hmmm, I have almost been killed by a flashflood, not in Havasu though....”

“But don't worry Appolonia, you will be MILES from there”

“Rain while hiking the GC sounds like a welcome thing. When it's hot, enjoy getting wet.”

“wingding0- where ya going?”

“walkindude- ya, it's pretty hot”

“I'm going down to Phantom Ranch one day and then back out the next. My son is going with me. He doesn't normally get into hiking, but he wants to do this one. We're staying at the Phantom Ranch.”

“cool, you'll be tiptoeing around the mule droppings the whole way

clears your sinuses right up”

“Weather in the grand canyon or not, watch out for flash floods. Have a great time Apollonia.”

“Apollonia --I don't know if this will affect you but the Bright Amgel Trail is shut down for about three weeks they say. It got damaged from heavy rain.”

“This was posted on my Grand Canyon Yahoo group . Bob is a park ranger:

I just finished talking with one of the Havasupai Tribal Council
members and he said that the trail going into Supai is closed and
being worked on now. He expects the trail to be fixed within a
week.

Regarding the deaths he said that the adult man, adult woman and
child had started hiking down the trail from Hualapai Hilltop on
Friday night and stopped to camp for the night about 1.5 miles above
Supai. According to him they camped directly under an unstable
gravel enbankment that fell on them while they were sleeping. Just
after they were covered a flash flood came down the main canyon and
that apparently unearthed their bodies.

Bob Audretsch
Grand Canyon, AZ”

“Sorry

Thought this was a newgirl thread.”

“spooky

I just had a flashback to my near miss (chills going up and down my arms)..it was in that gorge between Hermit campground and the River. Started raining like crazy and the people up top said they could see me down there scrambling to get out.. and the water coming down the canyon..a huge wall of it. I got out about 5 min. before it came through.”

“I know this is weird, but before I hiked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, I listened to the entire Grand Canyon Suite (five movements: Sunrise, Sunset, On the Trail, Cloudburst, and one other). It was neat because I could hear the music in my mind as I observed each one during the trip. I have the CD in my office and when I play it now I remember the trip even years later.

While hiking down the Kiabob Trail, we watched a lightning storm from the side that was occurring below the North rim of the Canyon. Awesome! The Grand Canyon is hard to describe.”

“Ooooh that is shaky Biz. I've been in the canyon with big storms many times but I was never in a skinny place. My Mom and I were hiking up at Navajo national monument one time and we made the last stream crossing about 5 minutes before a huge wall of water that carried whole trees came down behind us. Cool to watch if you are not in it.”

“cognizant assimilation

Same thing happens to me with smell”

“By Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 18, 2001


A deadly deluge in the western reaches of the Grand Canyon last week
narrowly missed 11 people who scrambled to high ground along the
Supai Trail.


"It sounded like a 747 jetliner," said Mission Viejo, Calif., Boy
Scout leader Jim Furgo, describing the sound of the 20-foot wall of
water he glimpsed as lightning sizzled overhead in the canyon in
northwestern Arizona.

Melvin Pesata, Denice Cooper and their 2-year-old son, Aaron Pesata,
were caught by the surging water on their way to Supai, the home of
the Havasupai Tribe.

Their children, Drey Pesata, 6, and Christa Cooper, 16, and her
friend, Yvonne Cooper, made it to the ledge where Furgo and his seven
Scouts had scrambled.

"If we had been on the trail, we would have all been dead," Furgo
said.

The Aug. 10 tragedy involving the New Mexico family is the latest
reminder of how quickly storm waters can fill Arizona's steep-walled
canyons during monsoon rains.

Leon Rogers, a Havasupai Tribal Council member, said tribal elders
say flash floods create "the sound of a heavy wind." Rogers knows. He
and his horse were nearly swept away in a canyon flood about 10 years
ago.

In 1997, a flash flood killed 11 hikers in Lower Antelope Canyon near
Page. Some victims' families sued tour company Trek America, which
settled the case for $1.8 million.

Also that year, more than 300 people were airlifted out of Supai when
another August storm flooded the remote Indian community, usually
reachable on foot or horseback via a steep 9-mile trail.

The Boy Scout troop that hiked Supai Trail through Hualapai Canyon
last week is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and had intended to hike out of the canyon in the dark.

"We started getting the wind and the lightning," Scout Kyle LeSueur
said. "We didn't think that much of it at first."

But Brent Harder remembered a flash-flood warning the night before
and suggested it would be better to find a safe place to camp.

"I proposed that we say a prayer," LeSueur said. "After that, we all
had the feeling as a group to go back."

They walked back less than a mile to a wide spot in Hualapai Canyon
before they could pitch their tents above the normally dry creek bed.

Heavy rain pounded the troop members as they set up their tents.
Christa, Drey and Yvonne made it to high ground as well and told the
Scouts that they were worried about the others.

"We looked at the torrent of water rushing by, knowing that we were
trapped there, and told her that there was nothing that any of us
could do for her parents and baby brother except pray for them,"
Harder said.

The three camped with the Scouts overnight.

At some point, the three bodies washed past them and were discovered
downstream early Saturday afternoon by U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
police.

The creek dried up by morning, and the Scouts hiked out. They saw a
downed horse near where they had turned back the night before, but
they did not realize that three hikers had died until they saw news
reports.

The New Mexico family was headed to Havasupai's annual Peach
Festival.

Melvin Pesata, 39, was a disc jockey in Dulce, N.M., and hosted a
popular reggae show on KCIE-FM. The station, which serves the
Jicarilla Apache Tribe, went silent all week to honor the family.

Denice Cooper, 40, was a second-grade teacher in Dulce.

The surviving children are staying with grandparents. The family is
coping with the loss "as best they can," said Annette Martinez,
Pesata's cousin and KCIE news director.

The station and a number of reggae musicians are planning a memorial
fund for the children, Martinez said.”