Dear Sir/Madam,

We are driving from Phoenix to Sedona in Oct’11 this year and are trying to work out what the weather will be like? Do the roads get affected at this time of year and also is it still a good time of year to see the Grand Canyon?

Appreciate your assistance.
Regards – Nicole R.

Colored Leaves in Sedona - Jeff Johnson

Hi, Nicole.  I’m willing to bet you’ll have smooth sailing the entire trip.  Phoenix is often still in the high 80s/low 90s in late October, and Sedona about 10 – 15 degrees cooler during the day, certainly cooler at night, but you should not have trouble with snow on the roads.  Yes, the Grand Canyon is still a great destination at that time of year (it always is) but particularly with regard to road conditions.  I doubt you’ll have trouble with snow that early in the fall/winter season at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, though the temperatures will merit wearing several light layers you can add and remove as the weather dictates (high temps are around 60 degrees at the end of October.)

(I am assuming you mean the South Rim, as it’s the most accessible from Sedona. The North Rim will be closed by mid-October.)

Here are links to average annual temps and snowfall for the three cities you mentioned (you may have to scroll down to see the weather tables):

• Scottsdale Weather
• Sedona Weather
• Grand Canyon Weather

Enjoy your trip, Nicole!

– ChristinaToo

Northern Arizona University’s Lumberjacks football team may have lost their homecoming game to Montana this past weekend, but my Saturday stay in Flagstaff was a winner.

My husband and I drove the scenic two-hour drive from our home in Scottsdale to Flagstaff on Saturday morning. As an NAU alum, he was jazzed to return to his college town and relive his glory days… twenty years later. After a quick lunch at Buster’s Restaurant & Bar – our traditional spot for watching football and good eats in Flag – we checked into the Little America Hotel, our lodging for the night.

The Little America is an elegant, upscale hotel located minutes from the downtown Flagstaff area. Although clearly an older hotel, this classic fixture of Flagstaff lodging has been nicely updated with flat-screen TVs, elegant decor, large bathrooms & guestrooms. I’ve stayed at the Little America about half a dozen times and I’m never disappointed. The staff is friendly, polite and thorough; the front desk and concierge consistently deliver four-star service. The hotel is immaculate and very reasonably priced – a tremendous value for the dollar.

After the homecoming game, our Little America concierge made reservations for us at Pasto, a fine-dining Italian restaurant in downtown Flagstaff. The perfect romantic dinner spot for my husband and me, Pasto’s exposed brick walls and simply candlelit decor fits in well with the Flagstaff downtown vibe. Pasto’s upscale and ecelectic menu of traditional Italian fare mixed with a selection of artisan cheeses & breads, game birds & other unusual proteins, and appealing flavor profiles made browsing the menu like watching an episode of “Top Chef.” While we fancy ourselved “foodies,” my husband and I were in the mood for a fairly light dinner, so we settled on a “create-your-own” antipasto to start and had house specialty entrees of portebello mushroom ravioli and jumbo prawns in a tomato-cream sauce. A nice wine list and desserts (we shared the chocolate & volipicello crema… essentially a rich chocolate pudding infused with red wine – divine and rich!) topped off our night.

Sunday morning, we headed for home early. After a quick stop at Starbucks on Milton Road, we hit the highway leaving behind another set of good memories to add to my husband’s college-days nostalgia and my Arizona travel mental scrapbook.

Updated October 2010:
Late September October through mid-October November is the best time to visit Sedona to see the fall leaves change color. Sedona.net gives tips on scenic drives and photography spots for a “leaf-peeping” trip to Sedona this fall…

Read the rest of the article on Sedona.net