Grand Canyon - April 15, 2003

Cathleen at (snowy) Mather Point

Here is me or here I am (whichever you prefer) at the Grand Canyon. As you can plainly see, we had some inclement weather. Quite the surprise.

I had arrived at the Southern Rim Mather Campground the evening before. The weather was windy and cold, but clear. I set up camp and set my alarm so I could rise and watch the sunrise. That is, after all, one of things you are supposed to do when visiting the Grand Canyon. So, come 5am the next morning, the alarm went off. I heard rain hitting the tent and realized there would be no sunrise to view. However, I needed to take care of some business in the restroom, so I got up. And looked out the tent. And realized the rain was not rain at all but SNOW!

SNOW! For goodness sake. Who would have figured that? Everything was covered with it. My tent, my car, the ground. I had to pack up everything wet and hope that, a week or so later, it wouldn't be mildewed. (For those who care, it wasn't. It was still wet, however.) No breakfast - there was no way I was going to unpack that stuff. I did visit the general store, where I was a part of the run on gloves and hats (don't mine look spiffy?).

I did attempt to view the canyon but it was still snowing and visibility was pretty much nil. The above picture is representative of what you could and couldn't see. I slogged about in the snow for a bit, but I had to get to Durango, so I didn't get to see or do much.

Some more weather comments, as April 15, 2003, seemed to be a wierd weather day, at least for me. I left the Grand Canyon in the snow. I exited via the East Entrance. By the time I got down to US89, all of the snow had finally melted off my car. It was clear, sunny, about 50 degrees. I headed northeast, towards Durango, via US Highway 160. Then I found a dust storm. A dust storm about 50 miles wide. There was also some sort of rain happening as part of the dust storm, so basically there was mud. Got all over the car. By the time I got to Colorado, it actually was rain without the dust. Then is hailed. So, I got to experience pretty much all weather - just need a beach and a hurricane.

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