Rim to Rim to Rim refers to running/hiking from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to the North Rim and back to the South Rim in one day. A “crazy” friend of ours did this about a year ago and since then Sara has been looking for a window for us to attempt it. In September Sara completed a Spartan Beast and I completed the Wisconsin Ironman so we figured we were in good enough shape to give it a shot. So we planned our attempt for October one week before the park stated it might start shutting down water stops on the route.
Here is a map of the route. It took us down the Bright Angel Trailhead (South Rim) to Phantom Ranch across the Colorado river. Next to Cottonwood Campground and up to the North Kaibab Trailhead (North Rim). We then turned around and headed back to the South Rim. The total trip is about 50 miles and took about 16 hours.
South Rim
We started our journey at 4:30 AM on Saturday, Oct 8th parking the outback parking lot at the Grand Canyon rim. Here is us with out headlamps ready to go. The weather report had said 39 degrees but it was closer to the high 40’s when we started.
The Angel Bright trail took us down many switch backs in the dark. We could see others ahead of us by watching their head lamps moving in the distance. Some people we caught up with and quickly asked where they were going as we moved forward.
The first major milestone we came to was the Indian Garden campground. Here we filled up our packs with water and used the bathrooms. The rocky trail now turned to sand and we were happy to be running again down toward the next steep section before the river.
There were lots more switchbacks before we made it to the Colorado river.
We reached the river and saw people camping on the sand just below where the trail starting traversing over to the Colorado River bridge.
We walked/ran along this path to the suspension bridge across the river.
It was really cool walking across the river looking down at the river rushing below your feet. It was very disorientating because it felt like the floor beneath my feet was moving.
There was tons of beauty along the way all around us as we ran and hiked through the bottom of the grand canyon to the North Rim. Here I am on the way down from the North Rim.
This is the Ribbon Falls viewed from the trail going up to the North Rim.
We reached the North Rim at just after noon (12PM) and found a couple of hikers at the top and a water station. It was way less built up than the South rim, just a parking lot, bathroom, and the trail marker. We filled up our water, used the bathroom, got our picture and then headed down the North rim again on our way back.
View of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon while hiking down to head to the South Rim again.
Some of the trails on the North Rim had some spectacular drop-offs with great views.
We don’t have many pictures on our way back to the South Rim because by the time we got to Cottonwood campground the second time it had started to rain lightly with thunder and lightening. We were running through the bottom of the canyon carrying our aluminum trekking poles and thinking should we be stopping and not carrying these metal poles.
We finished the climb going up the Bright Angel Trail at around 8:30. There were two other runners at the top waiting for their friend (bearded guy) who were nice enough to take our picture. We were so glad to be finished and so excited that we had done it. We shuffled down to the cafeteria which we knew was open until 10PM to get something quick to eat. After stopping we both got cold really quickly so after eating it was back to the car and the hotel to get a hot shower and some hot tea.
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