Running Across the Grand Canyon - And Back
The Ultimate Journey Deep Into One of the Iconic Seven Wonders of Our World
Running the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (R3) was everything I hoped for, and more. It was beautiful, it was grueling, it was incredibly rewarding and it was perfect. Huge shoutout to the amazing group of Raleigh Trail Runners (RTR) that all joined for the fun, but special thanks to Abraham Frandsen and Dalat Bui for sharing the entire day together; y’all made the rough parts easier and the good parts even better.
Danny and I started our adventure from Mather Campground at 3:32am after a slight delay (that fortunately wasn’t more serious than it was) and ran 2.5 miles to the South Kaibob Trailhead to join the rest of our group. We then took off running almost 6 miles downhill, descending over 4,500 feet to the Colorado River.
We leap-frogged each other as the dust and dirt kicked up from our tracks and made it hard to breathe. It’s tough to manage effort here, as downhill running is inherently ‘easy’ but your body will certainly pay the price later if you go hard.
Despite the pitch-black darkness we could clearly tell how vast everything was around us. Looking into the canyon, the light from our headlamps had nothing to reflect back on and completely vanished into the open air. The sensory deprivation was profound; apart from any chatting voices in close proximity I could see nothing, hear nothing, and at times I was left feeling isolated. My dried-out eyes sometimes struggled to pinpoint the trail features as they illuminated before me despite my dedication of focus. Occasionally, streaks of brightly colored embers popped into sight and interrupt my view. Was I already hallucinating? While I was fully cognitively aware of my surroundings, it seemed my brain tried to rationalize my current state and provide some additional external stimulants to keep me focused.
After a few miles, I stopped briefly to take my windbreaker jacket off, and watched Abe and Danny’s lights diminish into the canyon. I pushed harder to catch up - running ~10:00/mi pace, hoping not to misstep and send myself flying off the edge plummeting into the dark nothingness. I caught them just as we got to the main bridge and only a few minutes before daybreak in the inner canyon.
The true sense of scale of the Grand Canyon wasn’t embraced until this very moment after diving 5,000’ down and experiencing it from its valley floor. While it indeed appears “Grand” from along the rim, down here your perspective shifts from the dominant stance looking over the Canyon, to that of a tiny spec of insignificance among the towering walls overhead. It was unbelievable to be in such a beautiful, yet hostile environment, knowing the only way ‘out’ was to climb all the way back up.
The next several miles I hit my worst low point (and I’m not talking about elevation here). Only 10 or so miles in my body felt awful. These were some of the flattest and easiest miles but my legs were already aching. “No way will I be able to make it 40 more miles feeling like this…” My legs were toast, spirits were low and the aspirations for such an epic adventure were dwindling with every step. I didn’t want to bring our group’s energy down so I kept it to myself, until eventually crying out. In the true ultra-running spirit, Abe reassured me:
It’s ok, Scott. There are highs and there are lows, and this one will pass, just give it some more time. Make sure to keep eating and drinking and you’ll feel better soon.
I kept persisting. At this point we happen to meet John, also running R3 and from Charlotte, NC, just outside of our hometown! He and I shared a bit of the run together while Danny and Abe took off towards Cottonwood Campground. I hung back planning to meet them there. At Cottonwood, I was rejuvenated by fresh water and conveniently crossing paths with more RTR crew working their way from N to S. It was great to share our experience so far, before passing and going our opposite ways.
A few miles later, Abe and I caught back up to Walt and Danny, who had taken off sooner, but both realized they didn’t have enough water to climb all the way up to the north rim. They decided to play it safe and turned back downhill to get more water. Abe and I continued climbing out of the canyon, now fully exposed to the early-morning sun. I was feeling much better, but we checked in regularly and made sure to maintain a sustainable effort since the day was still young. After some 6+ hours and 25 miles later we reached the north rim. I had some minor headaches and overall just general fatigue after climbing nearly 6,000’ in the last few hours, so we took a long break up top before heading back down.
Within 10 or so minutes, Danny comes running up the canyon still fresh as could be. While Walt decided to abort R3 and head back to the other rim, Danny had gone down to top off water and then turned back up to catch us! After a few more minutes of refueling, Tak and Joshua who also started with us arrived as well. They both decided it was best to call it there and get a ride back instead of running the remaining 24+ miles. Abe, Danny and I refilled our packs with water and gratefully took all the extra food from Tak and Joshua for our return trip across the canyon.
Running back down North Kaibob was bliss. The miles flowed by as we were treated with unbelievable beauty not as often seen by the park’s main visitors. The day was heating up not only from the afternoon warmth, but as we descended deeper into the canyon as well. On our way down we passed Colin, who we thought had cut his day short and turned around hours ago. He was still on his way up, feeling decent, and fully prepared to continue his march to the north rim, and tackle the entire return trip back to the south rim solo, and most of it in the dark. We assured his well-being and continued running downhill.
I began experiencing spurts of pretty bad dizziness on our descent which was a bit concerning. The onset occurred only in moments when transitioning from running in the full sun and switching back into the shade. Being in the shade was indeed much cooler and more ideal, but anytime shade was approaching I stopped to walk to mitigate the dizziness that occurred once we got there. If the shade lasted a while I was able to pick back up running - and switching from shade back into the sun felt fine so I kept up this pattern all the down. The trail was narrow with steep drops and a misstep could be disastrous.
I was eating every 20-30min and taking in as many electrolytes as I could through various sources. My shirt, shorts and pack begun crusting with salt deposited from my body. The further down we got, the flatter - yet still downhill - the path became, so we went faster and faster. Once arriving at Phantom Ranch for the second time, and now in the full mid-day heat, I finally got to try this famous $6 lemonade. To be honest, I wasn’t (that) impressed. Yes it was cold and refreshing, but I couldn’t hardly taste it for some reason and only managed to get down a few sips. After a long break eating and refilling, we gathered our things in preparation to cross the Colorado River once more.
We’d then traverse almost two miles along the Colorado before beginning our steep ascent back out of the canyon on Bright Angel Trail. As we broke away from the river, Danny parted ways with Abe and I and made a mad-dash for the rim. Maybe he was trying to beat sunset - which was indeed our intended goal when we began, but for Abe and I, it was obvious that wasn’t going to be the case. No big deal, really.
The trail climbed steeply, switch-backing its way up the canyon. Fortunately for us, the entirety of this climb was shaded as we chased the beautiful sunset colors receding up the canyon walls. Very little running was done from this point forward, as we were 40+ miles in so far and faced several more miles of nonstop ascent ahead of us.
Everything was going well for me (so far…) and at some point, not far past Indian Gardens (4.5 miles from the Rim) I split from Abe. He hung back briefly to take an important phone call in a spot with decent cell service. With less than 4mi to the top, I had the “LETS FINISH THIS” attitude and started grinding hard. Too hard - for at least the caloric intake I was still managing. It’s sometimes difficult for me to stay on top of nutrition when there’s ‘just a little bit left’ as I think “once I stop I’ll be done.” But, in usual mountain-ultra races, the last 3-4 miles are typically pretty quick as we’re bombing our ways down from the mountains and back into town. This was not that. We had been climbing for hours with still hours to go. I got to the three-mile water refill area exhausted. ‘Just a 5k’ left isn’t really the way to think about it when that 5k involves 2,100 more feet of nonstop ascent. A short break later and I went right back to grinding.
Not even a mile further up the canyon my entire body suddenly grew weak. The sun slowly had set and we were back to navigation by headlamp. My legs were starting to cramp, hell, even my triceps were cramping from using my poles. I was sleepy and by myself. Well, the trail was actually pretty ‘crowded’ as many day-hikers were finishing up their Rim-To-Rim endeavor - a noteworthy accomplishment less than 1% of the park’s 6 million annual visitors complete.
I exchanged a few words with some of them, but was generally still moving quicker overall, and proceeded to pass once it was safe. Just after arriving at the refill station 1.5 miles from the rim, Abe comes up right behind me. He was moving much stronger than I was and had regained all the ground I put between us.
I explained how tired I had become so he gave me a gel and some salt and encouraged me to eat. My body was very low on calories but still nothing was appealing. I miraculously managed to swallow the gel without repulsion, despite quite a bit of gagging involved. As difficult as it was to get down it’s amazing how responsive my body was to that little bit of food. The gel and salt worked beautifully together. I took off into the night leaving Abe behind, once again. Sorry Abe. This was by no means a race - he clearly would have won if so - I was just SO ready to be done and rejoice over the accomplishment that was soon-to-be.
A trail of headlamps switch-backing their way up the canyon walls made it apparent how much climbing remained, as Bright Angel Trail is the more common choice of ascent. Although a few miles longer, it’s not nearly as steep or exposed as South Kaibob and there’s water refill stations periodically along the way. Upward progress felt slow despite my aggressive attack on the climb and continuing to pass many groups of day-hikers. Soon enough, I ran through a short tunnel carved out in the trail, which, from exploring the top of the south rim the previous day and seeing it from the top, I knew I was less than 1/4mi to the summit.
I continued about as hard as I could for what felt like much longer than I expected to remain. Apparently, this tunnel was not the one I had seen previously from above, as it was the first of two tunnels between us and the top. I hadn’t actually realized this until reaching the second tunnel, and only then understanding exactly where I was in the abundant darkness.
In an exuberant last burst to the summit, I ran past a few more people and tagged the Bright Angel Trailhead sign like those competing on American Ninja Warrior. It was a sign of relief to be done, but in that final moment I was sad my adventure had come to an end.
After months of anticipation, the journey there and back across the Grand Canyon was finally checked off; an absolute bucket-list item of adventure and I’m so fortunate to share the experience alongside so many good friends. We had at least 20 members up here this weekend representing the Raleigh Trail Running group all the way from North Carolina, each doing our own epic adventure through and around the Canyon.
Total stats of my day included 49 miles in an elapsed time of 15:55 with over 11,000 feet of ascent. By numbers alone this stacks up to some of my hardest 50-mile ultra races, but to have all of the climbing in just two main sections made it exceptionally difficult, especially at the end. There is truly just no other place out there like the Grand Canyon.
Whenever I go back for another R3 adventure, I’d likely choose to start an hour later to watch the sunrise and run down S. Kaibob in the daylight. Judging from the photos of other members, this trail features some of the most incredible views of the entire area that our group saw none of. There’s just too much to see all in one trip. Here are some of those highlights:
If you ever get the opportunity to see and explore this incredible beauty, do not pass it up. There’s a reason why it’s one of the seven wonders of the world, and pictures here, no matter how beautiful they appear, simply do not do it justice. There’s no way to experience this canyon except to see it for yourself.
Great story, great times. It was great seeing you on your adventure.