Hiking Rim to Rim Across the Grand Canyon

We took our first steps in the dead of night. 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 an enormous gap within the earth, my instinctual spidey sense activated. My chest tightened. My breath hitched. And I second-guessed my life decisions.

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

However no quantity of constructive self-talk and logical reassurance might 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 Internal Gorge, and ascending the South Rim, all in a single day — had handed me too. I stored my eyes on what I might see, my concentrate on what I might 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 might take off my headlamp. “Look,” he stated, declaring to the space, and I did.

The mid-Could solar was rising over the Grand Canyon. Daybreak mild 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, searching throughout the expanse. My mind referred to as up some information: The canyon is 278 river miles lengthy, its widest rim-to-rim measurement is eighteen miles, and its biggest depth is about 6,000 ft. A few of the rocks of the Internal Gorge are 1.8 billion years previous. I solid my gaze round, attempting to soak up this stretch of area and time. Looking for what is perhaps my end line on the South Rim. My eyes burned on the unimaginable effort.

“Bear in mind to cease and lookup now and again,” my new buddy suggested as he recommenced his descent.

I adopted his cue, and tried to match his mild, 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 many years, 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 bought this to Why aren’t you completed but? HURRY!

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

On prime of all that, the climb uphill was exhausting. More durable 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 cherished going up.

Downhills, in the meantime, have traditionally been my kryptonite. Beginning with the descent had felt like a blessed present: I might 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 unhealthy about myself. To make me need to surrender.

To prevail over the gremlin, I pushed tougher and dug deeper, solely to search out I didn’t have extra to provide. I used to be already working at one hundred pc. 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 will probably be match sufficient. It’s an previous 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 possibility. 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 might save me however myself.

I needed desperately to get out of the canyon. Possibly much more, I needed out of feeling unhealthy. The one possibility was to maintain shifting. And but I felt caught in place wishing it may very well be completely different. Simpler.

As I compelled down some fruit snacks and electrolytes, and ­delayed the inevitable subsequent step, my mind referred to 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 — imagine that their ancestors emerged from the underworld by way of a sacred gap within the earth referred to as the sipapu. Positioned throughout the canyon, a number of miles from the confluence of the Little Colorado and most important Colorado Rivers, the sipapu is believed to attach the “above” and the “beneath.”

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, searching for the sacred website someplace within the inverted dome beneath me.

What I noticed as soon as once more took my breath away. The afternoon mild, ­filtered by way 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 manner. Not actually, as a result of certainly the trail was clear and nicely 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, as a consequence of mounting challenges, may not be accessible for a lot longer.

Speeding wasn’t the purpose. Achievement wasn’t the objective. 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 ­strategy. As an alternative of mountain climbing as exhausting and quick as potential 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 needed. I might 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 cherished climbing the best, hardest peaks he might discover. After his sudden dying 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 bought to see the canyon, however we knew he would have cherished 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 high school and to the park, accumulating fallen leaves and inspiring me to maintain shifting, even once I bought drained attempting to maintain up together 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 only a few days later.

I walked together 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 will carry me to dinner with the remainder of my group, was a profound sense of satisfaction and just a little 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 completed it, and even gladder that it was behind me. One and completed, no query.

Early the subsequent morning, as my associates and I stretched our drained limbs and sipped scorching 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 another way subsequent time. Subsequent time. The resistance I’d felt the earlier evening 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 way of the North Rim. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the one lodging on the North Rim and our group’s refuge the evening earlier than our hike, was destroyed.

“I believe this can be the top of journeys to the canyon for a very long time,” our information, Koch, wrote in an electronic 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 long run 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 previous. The canyon will survive this — will survive us. For now, for ourselves, we are able to do our half to make sure the safety of this and different nationwide parks, and to maintain entry for Indigenous communities.

And we are able to nonetheless hope. Rim to rim 2026?

Climbing Rim to Rim: What You Must Know

After the Dragon Bravo Hearth blazed by way of northern Arizona in July, the Nationwide Park Service (NPS) introduced that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon can be closed to guests by way of no less than the top of 2025. Moreover, the North and South Kaibab trails, in addition to Phantom Ranch within the inside canyon, had been closed indefinitely. The South Rim, together with the customer heart, lodging, and rim trails, remained open. The guidelines 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 possibility 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, as a consequence of winter circumstances that make it unsafe. If potential, plan your journey in the course of the first or final week of the season, earlier than or after the inside canyon turns into dangerously scorching.

Don’t go alone. The very best determination I made was doing my rim to rim with a gaggle. I first heard in regards to 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 gaggle for her 2025 rim to rim, I rapidly signed on to affix her and her information, Dave Koch, PT, founding father of the Arizona Canyon Climbing 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 absolutely 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 in all probability find yourself strolling with somebody or a number of individuals at varied factors all through the hike — and sure make new associates alongside the way in which — however the one tempo you need to care about is your individual. In our group, the quickest individuals completed in about eight hours. Others I spoke to took upward of 18 hours. Take your time, push your self for your self, and rely in your group to avoid wasting you dinner.

Prepare. Then prepare some extra. There are some hikes that, if you happen to’re pretty match, you possibly can simply present up for and full. It is perhaps exhausting and also you would possibly get sore, however you possibly can end in fairly fine condition. Rim to rim will not be a type of hikes.

A number of individuals from my group labored with Life Time energy 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 energy work, and cardio coaching, particularly lower-intensity cardio for longer durations to construct up my endurance. Lastly, it included one future every week. Whereas longer runs aren’t required, time in your ft is. Whether or not you stroll, run, hike, or have one other manner 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 offer you 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 would possibly look like nice-to-haves, however belief me — they’re invaluable.