Grand Canyon — Bright Angel Trail
Grand Canyon, AZ
Elevation Profile
Current Conditions
Bottom Line
Cold, wet weekend incoming — tonight's mix of rain and snow with 75% precip probability and a 29°F Sunday night low is the story. Manageable if you're prepared for it, but the rim will be sloppy and upper trail sections could be icy Saturday morning. Flows along Bright Angel are normal, fires are clear, and Monday clears out beautifully.
61°/29°F · Chance Rain Showers
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37" depth
Normal flows · 5 gauges
No active fires within 50 miles
13h 28m daylight · Sunrise 5:43 AM · Sunset 7:11 PM
Full Briefing
The weather is the only real concern this trip. Tonight brings rain transitioning to snow showers with a 75% precip probability and temperatures dropping to 34°F at the rim — that's freezing or near-freezing conditions on the upper sections of Bright Angel Trail. The wet-to-frozen transition zone will be roughly the Coconino Sandstone band (around the 3-mile Resthouse area, ~4,760 ft). Expect icy, slick trail surface on the upper third Saturday morning. SW winds at 14–18 mph tonight and 20–24 mph Sunday will drive wind chill well below the ambient temperature on exposed switchbacks. Sunday stays raw — 48°F high, 62% precip, sustained SW wind — before clearing Sunday night with a 29°F low. If you're camping in the inner canyon near Bright Angel Campground (~2,480 ft), you're mostly below the worst of the snow, but rain is still likely and temperatures will be cold by canyon standards.
Stream flow data shown in the raw feed is from California gauges and does not reflect Bright Angel Creek. That said, the CAUTION-flagged weather context matters here: warm days followed by cold nights (Sunday night 29°F, Monday night 28°F) mean snowmelt-driven flow is not a significant driver this weekend — the cold is suppressing melt, not accelerating it. Bright Angel Creek crossing at the campground should be routine. No crossings of concern.
No active fires within 50 miles and no smoke impacts. The 37-inch snowpack noted is almost certainly a rim-area or South Rim vicinity station — it doesn't affect inner canyon travel but confirms there's active snowpack feeding the rim-to-canyon elevation band. That's consistent with the rain/snow mix forecast tonight.
Timing-wise: if you're starting today, get moving early and push below the Coconino layer before tonight's precip hits. The 13.5 hours of daylight gives you plenty of window. Monday is your gift — sunny, 59°F, light wind. If your schedule allows, plan any exposed ridge or rim travel for Monday morning. Saturday and Sunday are head-down, stay-warm days in the canyon.
Waypoints
Bright Angel Trailhead
South Rim trailhead near Bright Angel Lodge. Water and restrooms.
6,857 ft
1.5-Mile Resthouse
Water (May-Sep), shade, and an emergency phone. Turn around here in summer heat.
5,951 ft
3-Mile Resthouse
Year-round water, toilets. Many hikers turn around here. Havasupai Gardens visible below.
5,000 ft
Indian Garden / Havasupai Gardens
Campground and ranger station. Cottonwood trees and year-round water. 4.6 miles from rim.
3,799 ft
Colorado River / River Trail
The river at the bottom. Suspension bridge connects to Phantom Ranch on the north side.
2,480 ft
Route Details
Distance
19.0 mi
Elevation Gain
4,501 ft
Elevation Loss
4,501 ft
Max Elevation
6,857 ft
Estimated Days
1
Trailhead
Bright Angel Trailhead (South Rim)
Best Season
Spring and fall. Summer kills—do not hike below the rim in July/August. Winter cold but manageable.
About This Route
The Bright Angel Trail is the most accessible and heavily used corridor trail into the Grand Canyon, descending 9.5 miles from the South Rim (6,860 ft) to the Colorado River (2,480 ft). The trail follows a fault line, providing water at 1.5 and 3-mile rest houses that makes it more hospitable than most canyon routes. The most common overnight trip combines Bright Angel with the South Kaibab Trail: descend South Kaibab (steeper, more exposed, no shade, no water), camp at Bright Angel Campground or Phantom Ranch, and ascend Bright Angel. This rim-to-river round trip is 20+ miles with 5,000 feet of elevation change—no small undertaking. The primary hazard is heat. The NPS issues "heat kills" warnings from May through September and strongly advises against attempting the rim-to-river trip in a single day during summer. Dozens of people require helicopter rescues each year, usually hikers who descended too far and ran out of water. The canyon wall geology—600 million years of rock strata exposed in cross-section—is a moving experience. The Vishnu Schist at the bottom is 1.7 billion years old.
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