Category: Grand Canyon National Park North Rim

This has been an incredible season for Grand Canyon inversion, but it doesn’t usually happen in June.  So, what’s normal about weather?

Jim and Gayle pulled in with their RV Tuesday to spend three days as my neighbor.  They got lucky and then got two more nights in the park’s campground.

Rained all night, not truly a down pour but steady.  Good weather for sleeping.  We’d planned an afternoon drive out on the scenic road on the North Rim for Wednesday, the touristy day.  Seemed like the rain would let up a bit in the afternoon.

The first view point at Vista Encantada was fogged in, but kept teasing with tiny views of faint reddish rock on the canyon walls.

The Walhalla overlook proved better views though at first there wasn’t anything to see but fog.  Then patches of blue let tiny rays of light through the clouds and illuminated the canyon with even the muddy river showing a bit of glow.  Seeing the Rio de Colorado run red is a treat and means the Paria and/or Little Colorado are flashing.

We stopped to see Angels Window from along the road.  But as Jim said, you could hardly focus before things disappeared.  Slipping behind the quickly moving foggy fingers.

Pulled into the Cape Royal parking lot which literally disappeared and then it started to rain pretty hard.  We’d been lucky up to the point.  So we chatted in the car a bit then bright blue spots appeared behind large fluffy clouds and wisps of fog as we walked the .3 mile accessible paved trail to Cape Royal.

Took the side trail to the top of Angels Window and below in the fog appeared a round rainbow with our shadow in the center.  A glory or broken- spectre, is caused by light through air in drops of water.  Gayle said it followed her.  Kind of like driving past a rainbow seems as if it stays abreast.  What an interesting phenomenon.

We were all so totally intrigued almost forgot to look up at the canyon as it slipped in and out of view.

Finally at the end of the trail, the view from Cape Royal slipped in and out revealing peaks into the canyon.  Unbelievable how fast the fog moved.

From the wedding site at Cape Royal, where you can get a permit to marry overlooking the canyon, the fog lifted and gave us an uninterrupted view.

On the way back home we stopped at Point Imperial and were treated to a magnificent view with just some clouds on the horizon.  Hard to believe it was the same day.

Memorial Day weekend was not the typical BBQ under the sun sort of holiday with inversion at Grand Canyon.  Rain, cold and snow may have dampened a few hikers but the intermittent inversions put on a Grand show.  You just had to have patience.

So what is a cloud inversion?  When cold air is trapped in the canyon topped by a layer of warm air condensation occurs and fog forms.

Far person not in a safe place

Visitors constantly ask, when will it lift?  I don’t predict the weather.  But I tell them to find a place at the rim where they are safe and comfortable and have patience.  The clouds will typically drift in and out revealing windows of view and sometimes the whole canyon.

Actually inversions seem to happen more often than I remember since 2008 when I began working at the canyon.  I’ve seen them occur maybe two or three times a season during summer monsoons.  Since we’ve opened May 15th partial inversions have happened frequently.

This past winter the canyon experienced two total inversions in December (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF8LUy1LJjs) and January (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBm7jgNX3hQ) when clouds entirely filled the canyon with only the tallest peaks sticking up out of a sea of fog.  According to the National Weather Service total cloud inversions are a rare event that typically happen just once every several years.  So what’s normal about weather?

I should have taken video as the rise and swirl changed so rapidly.  But I was working.  I’d take a photo, turn to talk to a visitor and in seconds the entire scene would change.  If I carried the tripod this would have made for awesome time lapse.

It reminds me of Merlin’s dragon breath.  Temples of stone appear as islands in the sea.

View from RV

Due to a low winter snow pack we really need all this moisture and hopefully it will reduce the risk of forest fire this year.

After the holiday weekend ended the weather, so far, returned to spring.  I spent Tuesday on the Walhalla Plateau under patches of blue sky.

Have you ever seen the phenomenon of cloud inversion?  Come visit Grand Canyon National Park during summer monsoon for a possible chance.  But please have patience.