Grand Canyon in the Summer

I was concerned about visiting the GC in the summer, but my high school best friend was getting married in Flagstaff, AZ. As it turns out, the top of the canyon isn’t too bad (comparatively). It was in the 80s and 90s. It does get significantly hotter the deeper into the canyon we go. As I had a knee injury I wasn’t able to hike to far down anyways, so that was that.

The upside to extreme temperatures is that its easier to get away from the crowds if we persevered a bit. The crowds of course stick to the air conditioned buses and don’t stray too far from the hot dogs and ice cream. We had already traveled in much hotter areas of Arizona (120+ degrees), so 80-90 dry heat was really not too bad. We brought a handy cooler with plenty of meats, hummus, yogurt. One of the most important things  we found is to keep the electrolyte content high. This means don’t worry about salt, pour it on! Without electrolytes, drinking lots of water actually flushes key salts from your body. Salts (electrolytes) are what make your body able to conduct energy required by the nervous system (and to retain water in your body). Without these, hiking gets… uncomfortable to say the least.

So with good food, water, and smart hiking (staying in the shade and taking breaks in an air conditioned car occasionally), we found some absolutely amazing vistas completely unpopulated.

Rainbow on the way to Grand Canyon