141. See the Grand Canyon

There's about a million and one blogs about things to do at the Grand Canyon. There's even one about things to do on a rainy day in the Grand Canyon. However, none of them prepared us for a foggy day at the Grand Canyon.

Our Grand Canyon trip was doomed from the start. It had to be moved up a day to accommodate my aunt's funeral. Our smartphones didn't realize we were in Arizona which does not participate in daylight savings time and woke us up an hour early. Then the day dawned cold and rainy.

By the time we got to the Grand Canyon, the rain had stopped for the most part but it was still cloudy. I noticed a sign at the entrance saying something about no refunds because of the weather but kind of blew it off. I might wanted to pay a little more attention to the weather because we got to the South Rim viewing platform and saw nothing but clouds and fog. It was almost pea soup. Occasionally we would get a glimpse of the Canyon walls.

We wandered the rim path for a bit, occasionally getting a glimpse or two of the canyon. We took the shuttle bus to another look out point. Here we managed to see almost to the bottom of the canyon in a small section for a few minutes.. then the fog blew back in. Eventually we gave up and headed for lunch in Flagstaff... we had places to see.

Here are my "tips" for visiting the Grand Canyon in the fog, especially if you have more than an hour or two:

1. Check the weather report -- if it is supposed to clear up later in the day, wait and go later in the day if the time allows and you don't mind a few extra people. Our schedule didn't allow us to come back later and little did we know it was going to be fogged in otherwise we might have rearranged our schedule.

2. Go to the visitor center and watch the movie about the Grand Canyon. We skipped this and it might have given us a better window to see the canyon.

3. Hop on the purple shuttle to go to the Grand Canyon National Geographic Visitor Center in Tusayan. You can explore the visitor center or see the Grand Canyon IMAX movie for $13.59.

4. Actually hike into the canyon. You might actually see more when you are in the fog then on top of it.. or then again you might just see fog. Just remember the easy part of the hike is down and don't go farther than you can handle climbing back up.

5. Walk the rim path and be glad for the glimpses of the canyon you actually get to see. Since the canyon looks different after every rain fall, you will see the canyon as no one ever has seen it or will see it again.

Yes I would loved to see the entire Grand Canyon. What we did see was impressive. We want to go back and see the Canyon when it's not fogged in but are not going to go out of way to do so. However, I would recommend as long as you aren't crunched for time, be patience, let the fog burn off, and watch the Canyon emerge from the fog. It may take all day but I will guarantee you will see some pretty amazing views of the canyon as the fog comes and goes.