MORGAN TILTON • 5280.COM
Ponderosa pines and upland shrub glowed in the moonlight as Suzanne Stroeer, Lexi Miller, and Christin Douglas crested the Grand Canyon’s North Rim on October 23, 2020. They’d just spent 22 hours, 27 minutes running through the magnificent ravine, to the top of the southern side of the gorge, and back. The trek included two difficult climbs, as well as two swims across the Colorado River. When it was all said and done, the trio had traveled some 46 miles and ascended more than 16,300 feet. They’d also become the only known females to finish one of the most rigorous and least-trodden trails through the Big Ditch.
Over the past decade, the traditional trail for traveling from rim-to-rim (R2R2R) of the Grand Canyon has become increasingly crowded with ultrarunners and fastpackers. Grand Canyon National Park even started requiring a special-use permit to traverse it in 2014. The route starts at the Southern Rim, where adventurers can descend the South Kaibab or Bright Angel trails, cross one of the Silver or Black bridges, and climb out via the North Kaibab Trail. After returning the same way, athletes have traveled 42 miles and ascended 10,400 feet.
“I’d run [that] Grand Canyon R2R2R before, one-and-a-half years prior,” says Douglas, who is a professional endurance athlete and landscape photographer. “It was beautiful, but really crowded.”
In an effort to take a more remote, less traveled path, Stroeer, Miller, and Douglas planned for the other trail, known as the Grand Canyon R2R2R-alt. “I thought it was really cool that there’s this other route that no one is on,” says Douglas.