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Shuggaloaf t1_j5auphh wrote

Is it warmer as you descend into the canyon? Just curious about how the snow only seems to be at the top of the canyon.

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PudgyGroundhog OP t1_j5bn7t0 wrote

Yes - the temperatures goes up ~3.5-5 degrees for every thousand feet descended into the canyon. Havasupai Gardens is about half way down the canyon (~2500 feet descent) and usually don't get snow that far down. This is also how people get into trouble when it's warmer - they don't realize it will be significantly hotter at the bottom.

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Shuggaloaf t1_j5c097z wrote

Very interesting. It makes sense because it basically happens the same with mountains, just never thought about it being like that for canyons as well.

Thanks for the info!

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PudgyGroundhog OP t1_j5g9min wrote

True! People get in to the reverse kind of trouble on mountains - it's really nice at the bottom, but they neglect to think about temperatures/wind/etc at the top.

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