Yep. You read that right! If you know, you know! This refers to hiking the Grand Canyon from one rim to the other and back again. It is 24 miles one way. You descend 6,000 feet from the south rim via the South Kaibab trail to the bottom of the canyon where you reach the Colorado River and ascend 4,500 feet to the north rim via North Kaibab trail. Then, to return you descend the 4,500 feet down North Kaibab and can either ascend back up South Kaibab or the Bright Angel Trail which is longer in distance but not quite as steep up. This is what we did to get a different view on the return.

**Just a side note: a mile is 5,280 feet. So for perspective if you look over the edge, the 6,000 feet to the river is over a mile down. That’s waaaay down there. 😳

Danny and I were invited to join our friends Ron and Mitch from TX who have been hiking the Grand Canyon for many years. We had joined them the year before to hike down to Phantom Ranch (a lodge at the bottom of the canyon), spend the night and hike on to the north rim the next day. It was an amazing hike so we decided to do it again. But….this time we would basically double the miles in one day and then turn around and do it again the next day, hence Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim.

Also joining us was Jessica and her friend (friends of Ron), Mogul (a fellow AT hiker) and Lisa (Tex) a mule wrangler that works at the Grand Canyon. Tex was also a fellow AT hiker. She was kind enough to share a lot of history and point out things we would have just walked right by without noticing.

To say this was a challenge would be an understatement. The temperature at the top of the rim was cold and at the bottom it was 100 degrees. It can vary 20-25 degrees between the top and bottom because of the elevation difference. The heat made it tough. Luckily, souzing down in the Colorado River for a while helped to cool us down a bit where we could continue on and make the climb out.

We started in the dark with headlamps around 4:30 am and popped out on the north rim around 6pm. We had spent a little time in the river and having snacks at Phantom Ranch. After arriving at the North Rim, we hitched a ride in the back of a truck to the North Rim Lodge where we got to have a delicious dinner. We were all starving. **Sad to say that the lodge burned down this year when lightning started the Dragon Bravo fire that burned over 145,000 acres. I’m so happy I got to see and enjoy the lodge before its demise.

After dinner we all went to our cabin and we had people sleeping all over the place. In beds and on the floor. We packed everyone in.

You could sign up at the lodge the night before for a shuttle to take you back to the trailhead the next morning but there were limited spots each hour. There were two 4:30 am spots so Tex and I took those and the others came about an hour behind us. We hiked down and relaxed in the river and waited for them there. We arrived back at the south rim around 7:15 that evening. We had done approximately 48 miles down and up and back down and up again in 2 days.

We had camped the night before we began the trek at the south rim campground (Mather Campground) and had left our tents set up so we returned to the campsite for the night, spent the night and headed back to the airport the next morning. Danny and I had visited Sedona for the day before the hike and I wish we had made more time for sightseeing that area. We’ll have to return to do that.

I would do Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim again and again!! I loved it!! The Grand Canyon is one of those places you really must see and even better, hike if you can! It really is GRAND!!