Hiking Rim to Rim Across the Grand Canyon

We took our first steps at midnight. Even with dozens of headlamps bouncing round me, the Grand Canyon wasn’t instantly seen from the North Kaibab Trailhead. However I felt its immensity anyway. Maybe as a primal response to approaching a large gap within the earth, my instinctual spidey sense activated. My chest tightened. My breath hitched. And I second-guessed my life decisions.

I skilled for this second, I reminded myself. The 20-some-mile path forward is evident, and it’s effectively marked.

However no quantity of constructive self-talk and logical reassurance may calm my nerves. So I made a decision to not fear about it: I can really feel nervous — scared, even — and do it anyway.

I stepped gingerly, fidgeting with my mountain climbing poles, adjusting and readjusting my pack. A fearless horde of younger males parkoured off the rockface to my left, overtaking me.

Inside minutes, all the opposite hikers and path runners embarking on this rim-to-rim trek — starting on the canyon’s North Rim, descending into the traditional Inside Gorge, and ascending the South Rim, all in a single day — had handed me too. I saved my eyes on what I may see, my deal with what I may management: the subsequent step proper in entrance of me.

“You don’t want that anymore.” I finished in my tracks and turned to face a person tapping his brow, indicating that I may take off my headlamp. “Look,” he stated, mentioning to the space, and I did.

The mid-Could solar was rising over the Grand Canyon. Daybreak gentle limned the spruce-fir forest, nonetheless dotted with late-winter snow, and solid a golden-pink glow on the canyon’s olive, rust, and beige rock partitions.

“Wow,” I attempted to say, however the phrase got here out as little greater than an awed breath.

“Proper?”

My rim-to-rimmate and I stood in silent reverence, looking throughout the expanse. My mind known as up some information: The canyon is 278 river miles lengthy, its widest rim-to-rim measurement is eighteen miles, and its best depth is about 6,000 toes. A few of the rocks of the Inside Gorge are 1.8 billion years outdated. I solid my gaze round, attempting to soak up this stretch of house and time. Looking for what is likely to be my end line on the South Rim. My eyes burned on the unattainable effort.

“Keep in mind to cease and lookup on occasion,” my new buddy suggested as he recommenced his descent.

I adopted his cue, and tried to match his gentle, swift footfalls. However I quickly fell behind. The phrases of my information, Dave Koch, a Phoenix-based bodily therapist who has been main teams on rim-to-rim hikes for greater than three a long time, got here again to me then: “Hike your individual tempo.”

I slowed down once more, holding tight to the knowledge of those that already knew this place. There’s no have to rush. Take all of it in. You’ll end once you end.

Hurry Up Already

Eight hours later, I used to be gritting my enamel as I climbed up the South Kaibab Path. Someplace alongside the ascending switchbacks, my mindset shifted and my self-talk went from Don’t rush, you’ve completely obtained this to Why aren’t you finished but? HURRY!

It’s not a complete shock that I used to be feeling crabby and being exhausting on myself. My muscle tissue had been fatigued from the sluggish, managed descent to succeed in the bottom of the canyon. The warmth — within the triple digits by the point I reached the Inside Gorge — zapped my vitality and my temper. And the general effort tamped down my urge for food, making it troublesome to gas adequately and maintain my vitality up.

On prime of all that, the climb uphill was exhausting. Tougher than I anticipated. Normally, ascents are the straightforward a part of hikes for me. From traversing the Peruvian Andes to climbing Colorado 14ers, I’ve all the time liked going up.

Downhills, in the meantime, have traditionally been my kryptonite. Beginning with the descent had felt like a blessed reward: I may get the exhausting half out of the way in which first and benefit from the climb to the end.

However the warmth, the fatigue, and the problem solely fed the gremlin inside me — the one which is aware of precisely what buttons to push to make me really feel dangerous about myself. To make me wish to quit.

To prevail over the gremlin, I pushed more durable and dug deeper, solely to search out I didn’t have extra to provide. I used to be already working at 100%. It simply wasn’t sufficient. The gremlin fed off this realization and tried to persuade me that I’m a failure. That I’m not match sufficient and by no means shall be match sufficient. It’s an outdated cycle — one which I’m conscious of however nonetheless get caught in, particularly when exhaustion meets expectations.

My rim-to-rim effort was no exception. Feeling sorry for myself, I plopped down on a rock and unclipped my pack. I used to be prepared to surrender.

However the factor about mountain climbing within the Grand Canyon — and particularly when doing a rim to rim — is that giving up isn’t actually an choice. I couldn’t flip round. I couldn’t take a shortcut. I had no cell service and couldn’t order an Uber or name for assist. Even when I had been bodily injured, I couldn’t depend on emergency companies reaching me simply or swiftly. And since I wasn’t affected by something greater than a nasty temper, nobody may save me however myself.

I wished desperately to get out of the canyon. Perhaps much more, I wished out of feeling dangerous. The one choice was to maintain transferring. And but I felt caught in place wishing it might be totally different. Simpler.

As I pressured down some fruit snacks and electrolytes, and ­delayed the inevitable subsequent step, my mind known as up an Indigenous story I’d encountered in my analysis for this journey. In accordance with the account, the Hopi — who’ve lived within the area for hundreds of years and name the canyon Öngtupqa — consider that their ancestors emerged from the underworld by means of a sacred gap within the earth known as the sipapu. Positioned throughout the canyon, a couple of miles from the confluence of the Little Colorado and foremost Colorado Rivers, the sipapu is believed to attach the “above” and the “under.”

I stood with out my pack for the primary time all day, stretched my arms out to catch the breeze, and solid my gaze about, on the lookout for the sacred web site someplace within the inverted dome under me.

What I noticed as soon as once more took my breath away. The afternoon gentle, ­filtered by means of a dusty haze kicked up by the wind, highlighted the canyon’s ruddy peaks and valleys. My eyes adopted the outlines of the cliffs and the striations that appeared painted onto the canyon partitions.

I understood, then, that I’d misplaced my approach. Not actually, as a result of certainly the trail was clear and effectively marked. However on the within, I’d forgotten why I used to be on the trail within the first place.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime journey, in a spot I’d dreamed of mountain climbing ever since I understood the Grand Canyon was an actual, however at least magical, place. A spot that, on account of mounting challenges, may not be accessible for a lot longer.

Dashing wasn’t the purpose. Achievement wasn’t the purpose. I’d dedicated to discovering what would occur if I hiked rim to rim in a single day. What would I see? What would I believe? What would I really feel? No extra, no much less.

With that, I modified my ­method. As a substitute of mountain climbing as exhausting and quick as attainable and being depressing each step of the way in which, I gave myself a mission: Take 100 steps max, then discover the closest butt-shaped rock and sit — for so long as I wished. I may snack, stretch, take footage, journal, or speak to different hikers or animals that scurried by. No matter felt proper.

As I moved ahead, one step, one switchback, and one rock-seat at a time, my thoughts drifted to my late father. He’d been a mountaineer in his youth and liked climbing the very best, hardest peaks he may discover. After his sudden demise in 2024, my mother and I visited the Grand Canyon and left a few of his solidified ashes on a quiet rock ledge. He by no means obtained to see the canyon, however we knew he would have liked it.

Climbing the South Rim, I felt my dad shut by. There have been the recollections of Baba strolling with me as a toddler, taking me to highschool and to the park, gathering fallen leaves and inspiring me to maintain transferring, even after I obtained drained attempting to maintain up along with his lengthy, sturdy legs. And there was the newer reminiscence of the final time we walked collectively, arm in arm, down the corridor of the hospital the place he would die just some days later.

I walked along with his reminiscence for some time, then took one other seat and cried for the primary time in a very long time.

Let’s Go Once more

I crested the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at 6:30 p.m., greater than 13 hours after beginning my journey. My crabbiness had handed. So had my tears. What I used to be left with, as I took the ultimate steps to the shuttle that may carry me to dinner with the remainder of my group, was a profound sense of satisfaction and somewhat little bit of disbelief.

Once I despatched my household proof of life — a drained however smiley selfie — I informed them I’d by no means do a rim to rim once more. That I used to be so glad I’d finished it, and even gladder that it was behind me. One and finished, no query.

Early the subsequent morning, as my buddies and I stretched our drained limbs and sipped sizzling espresso, we debriefed about what had labored and what hadn’t. We swapped tales and ideas round fueling, hydration, gear, coaching, and photograph ops. We mentioned what we’d do in a different way subsequent time. Subsequent time. The resistance I’d felt the earlier night time was fading quick.

“Rim to rim 2026?” somebody requested.

“2026,” all of us agreed.

Lower than two months after our journey, a wildfire blazed by means of the North Rim. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the one lodging on the North Rim and our group’s refuge the night time earlier than our hike, was destroyed.

“I believe this can be the tip of journeys to the canyon for a very long time,” our information, Koch, wrote in an e mail to his contacts. The following guided journey, set for October 2025, was canceled. The Could 2026 hike, too, appeared unlikely. The current was unhappy; the longer term unsure.

However “a very long time” for us is a drop within the ocean of time for Öngtupqa. The geology of the area has been considerably evolving for the previous 70 million years, and the canyon itself, carved by the Colorado River, is greater than 5 million years outdated. The canyon will survive this — will survive us. For now, for ourselves, we will do our half to make sure the safety of this and different nationwide parks, and to maintain entry for Indigenous communities.

And we will nonetheless hope. Rim to rim 2026?

Mountaineering Rim to Rim: What You Have to Know

After the Dragon Bravo Hearth blazed by means of northern Arizona in July, the Nationwide Park Service (NPS) introduced that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon could be closed to guests by means of no less than the tip of 2025. Moreover, the North and South Kaibab trails, in addition to Phantom Ranch within the internal canyon, had been closed indefinitely. The South Rim, together with the customer middle, lodging, and rim trails, remained open. The information that observe apply solely when the NPS formally reopens the North Rim. For updates, go to https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/grand-canyon-national-park-public-health-update.htm.

Go early or late within the season. Rim-to-rim hikes are an choice solely when each the North and South rims of the Grand Canyon are open. Whereas the South Rim is open year-round, the North Rim is usually open solely from Could to October, on account of winter situations that make it unsafe. If attainable, plan your journey throughout the first or final week of the season, earlier than or after the internal canyon turns into dangerously sizzling.

Don’t go alone. The most effective choice I made was doing my rim to rim with a bunch. I first heard concerning the problem from my Life Time colleague and buddy Lindsay Ogden, a private coach who accomplished her first rim to rim in 2024. When Lindsay was rounding up a bunch for her 2025 rim to rim, I shortly signed on to hitch her and her information, Dave Koch, PT, founding father of the Arizona Canyon Mountaineering Expertise (ACHE).

Koch has been main teams on rim-to-rim (and rim-to-rim-to-rim) hikes since 1993. A lifelong out of doors fanatic and avid hiker, Koch needed to cease doing the hike himself after creating Parkinson’s illness. However he loves the canyon a lot that he has continued to supply totally supported journeys, together with meals and transportation, from the Phoenix space. I can’t think about a rim to rim with out Linsday, Koch, and the remainder of our ACHE crew.

Go at your individual tempo. As Koch reminded our group repeatedly: Don’t attempt to hike with anybody else. Don’t push your tempo too exhausting to maintain up with (or beat) a buddy or member of the family, and don’t sluggish your tempo to maintain anybody else firm. You’ll most likely find yourself strolling with somebody or a couple of folks at numerous factors all through the hike — and certain make new buddies alongside the way in which — however the one tempo you need to care about is your individual. In our group, the quickest folks completed in about eight hours. Others I spoke to took upward of 18 hours. Take your time, push your self for your self, and depend in your group to save lots of you dinner.

Practice. Then practice some extra. There are some hikes that, when you’re pretty match, you possibly can simply present up for and full. It is likely to be exhausting and also you may get sore, however you possibly can end in moderately good condition. Rim to rim shouldn’t be a kind of hikes.

A number of folks from my group labored with Life Time power and endurance coach Mike Thomson. My four-month progressive program included a mixture of strategic resistance coaching, constructing on my sturdy base with endurance-supporting power work, and cardio coaching, particularly lower-intensity cardio for longer durations to construct up my endurance. Lastly, it included one long term every week. Whereas longer runs aren’t required, time in your toes is. Whether or not you stroll, run, hike, or have one other approach that you simply prefer to get round by foot, put aside a number of steady hours as soon as per week to get used to it.

Trekking poles are nonnegotiable. These will save your knees on the downhill and provide you with help on the uphill. Whilst you’re at it, put on a pack with a bladder or bottles that will let you carry no less than 4 liters of water. These may look like nice-to-haves, however belief me — they’re invaluable.