Northern Arizona (Sedona, Grand Canyon...etc) Summer Question

Not sure how much my experience will help, but I'll throw out the data point. Did the Utah parks, Zion and Bryce Canyon around the summer solstice a few years ago. Gets you about 16 hours of sunlight going at that time, which was awesome but also quite warm. Drove down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon one day and the thermometer on the vehicle ranged from 100 degrees in Utah to about 40 approaching the Grand Canyon. Fantastic trip. Even with the heat of Utah, the dry air allowed for the temps to be very comfortable, even crisp in the early morning hour.

Sedona can easily reach mid 90s if not 100 during the day in June. It will be a little cooler than Phoenix but low 80s as a high should not be expected if someone is planning on hiking.

One on June trip we started one hike ( AB Young )in the canyon before the sun was fully up and we got caught coming down in temps well into the 90s.

Most of the hikes in the Sedona area are not very long so that helps. What we did was plan a decent distance hike early in the morning, indoors or in the water during the day (Slide Rock State Park, Grasshopper Point, Beaver Creek, Red Rock Crossing) and then maybe an afternoon or evening hike different than what we did in the morning. Maybe a red rock hike in the morning and then a canyon hike in the afternoon.

Hope that helps.

Just came back, I know its not the Summer but I can tell you from going from Southern Utah, into Northern AZ, then middle of AZ.... it was interesting to watch the temp changes with the kiddos.

In a day we saw below 30, above 80, around 70, then back in the 50s...

It was fun and interesting for the kids/

I would imagine in the Summer time it won't be as dramatic, but at the same time I would imagine early Summer you can likely get away with different variations of temps.

Plan accordingly and do the tougher hikes early and late, avoid the mid day stuff...


****Rec if not too hot. We stayed at Wander Camp about 15 min South of the Grand Canyon Entrance....It was a fun and neat experience. Was not bad at all, the beds were comfortable and you are going to see the most stars you've ever seen before.

Northern Arizona will be comfortable

I think this thread sums up my experience trying to figure out temperatures there. I suppose the question is too vague to really pin down. I do wonder if we could fill a 7-8 day trip with unique areas and hikes that would be comfortable? I get the rim of the Grand Canyon would be cooler, but would all of Sedona be very hot?

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Phoenix is at 1,000 ft, and Sedona is at 4,000 feet. The north rim of the canyon gets up to 8,200 feet.

Looking at historical data, Sedona averages a high of 90 and a low of 64 that time of year. But it is a desert, and so it’s not like the south. You’ll be very comfortable.

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Yeah, I'm using WUnderground and looking at historical readings at different weather stations. That seems to give me the best info so far. I can pin down exact dates and just click back through the years.

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I think this thread sums up my experience trying to figure out temperatures there. I suppose the question is too vague to really pin down. I do wonder if we could fill a 7-8 day trip with unique areas and hikes that would be comfortable? I get the rim of the Grand Canyon would be cooler, but would all of Sedona be very hot?

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sedona will be hot in early june. there is very little tree cover so if it is a sunny day (good bet in june because the monsoon hasn't started yet) you are going to bake. something like the west fork of oak creek would be a decent hike with some shade and water, and of course slide rock is right there. but it will be busy, full of phoenix people trying to escape the heat. I-17 becomes a parking lot from thursday afternoon through sundays in the summertime.

flagstaff is a better bet as far as weather is concerned, and you can hit trails off mt humphreys. we've done aspen corner to bismarck "lake" throughout the summer. the summit of mt humphreys is a sweet hike as well, just get off the summit before the thunderstorms roll in. or hit lockett meadow or closer to town schultz creek and the mt elden trails (which are mostly used by mountain bikers).

another option would be the mogollon rim, pine/strawberry, christopher creek and further afield woods canyon and willow springs lakes. there are high mountain lakes all along the rim road on the mogollon rim and it is heavily forested.

much further afield is show low, pinetop-lakeside and the white mountain apache reservation with trout streams and alpine lakes at 9,000 ft elevation with arctic grayling! before we moved to idaho we'd spend most of our summers on the mogollon rim or white mountains of az. sedona and flagstaff were just way too crowded.

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but most people don't realize that 90 degrees at elevation in the mountains feels a HELL of a lot hotter than 90 at sea level with the same humidity. the uv radiation at elevation is no joke.

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Not exactly crazy elevation, but I've done 112 in Vegas and that was an absolute oven broiler. Then we drove up the next morning and froze our asses off watching a meteor shower outside of Mammoth Lakes, CA in shorts and tshirts. That was the first intro into massive temp swings.