In 2022, Madeline Bryant and her father, Ned, completed the final leg of the 277-mile trail through the Grand Canyon. The duo had chipped away at the full distance over the course of 17 years, hiking different legs one at a time. But they completed all of the miles together. 

The Grand Canyon gets narrower as you head west toward Lava Falls, and at that point, there is a huge block of sheer black rock right above the river. Most hikers will ascend over this rock, which technically takes them out of the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park. But my dad is a purist. He wanted to hike along the rock as close to the water as possible, to keep us inside the park.

When we reached the rock, we were puzzled about how we’d actually get around it. Then we saw a bighorn sheep climbing along the rock, and we studied the line it took. That’s the route we ended up following. Technically, our entire trek is located within Grand Canyon National Park. And after talking to a handful of others who have completed the entire canyon, we realized we were maybe ninth or tenth people who have completed the canyon to follow that line that the sheep took.

My dad got the idea to hike the entire length of the Grand Canyon back in 1990 when my mom was pregnant with me. They had stopped by the canyon during a road trip, and that was the first time my dad realized you could go hiking in it. He started going on adventures to the Grand Canyon two years later, and I grew up watching him go on these trips. As a kid, all I wanted to do was go with him.

When I turned 14, my dad deemed me old enough to go. We did our first hike that year: down the Hermit Trail, along the Tonto Trail to Phantom Ranch, and then up the South Kaibab Trail.

It was not a fun hike. I remember trudging up the South Kaibab Trail and thinking I’m never doing this again. This is complete bullshit. But after we got home and a few weeks went by, I forgot how terrible and hard it was.

And that’s how our trips to the Grand Canyon began—every year we returned for a week or so to complete another hike. In year two, we did the Royal Arch Loop. In our third and fourth years we chose more remote routes.

A friend of my dad’s told him that you can complete the entire Grand Canyon traverse by connecting different trails. At first, we said no, but the idea just kind of stuck around in the back of our minds. Eventually, we decided to go for it and started tackling some of the less-interesting routes that we needed to tick off to complete it.

Technically, we did the Grand Canyon out of order: we would do a loop here, a loop there. We did one canyon hike a year when I was a teenager because we lived in Minnesota. After 2016, we got serious about completing the line and started doing two trips each year.

Here’s the thing: not all of the routes in the Grand Canyon are that fun. I personally really loathe Marble Canyon. It’s the beginning of the Grand Canyon, and it takes you from Lees Ferry to Nankoweap Granaries. It’s small and tight and claustrophobic. In many areas of the Grand Canyon, you get to see the full gamut of rock layers and geology. But in Marble Canyon, the famed Redwall Limestone doesn’t even appear for several miles.

Plus, Marble Canyon is so narrow that at times you can’t get down to the river. I know plenty of people who love Marble Canyon, but I didn’t like it.

I recently put together a spreadsheet and realized that I’ve spent 328 days in the Grand Canyon with my dad, including hikes and river trips.  You might think that spending that much time with a parent would be hard, but it’s not. I have a great relationship with both of my parents. My dad and I are buddies, and we always have a lot to talk about.

Obviously, there are some personal topics you don’t want to talk about with your dad. But we talk about life and politics and work, and we always talk a lot about the canyon. Before each hike, my dad reads guidebooks and puts together this historical research. We will search for Native American archaeological sites or old mining sites. We often discuss the history of the places we visit. At one point, we visited a site from the 1920s where they were going to build a gondola across the canyon. It was crazy to learn about the plan. At another site, we found a tin of 100-year-old candy that was half-full of old caramels.

Of course, sometimes my dad and I do come to an impasse, usually over directions. Do we go right or left? His mantra is that Maddie is always correct. 

My dad tolerated my whining when I was a kid. But as I grew older, I realized how much I loved going on these trips with him. The Grand Canyon trips shaped who I became as an adult. Completing the line has become something I’m very proud of. The funny thing is that I’m not really a hiker or backpacker outside of the Grand Canyon. It’s the only place I go. When you grow up with the Grand Canyon in your life, it becomes familiar. I know the rocks, plants, and animals, and how everything is supposed to look and feel.

Some people return to the same cabin or vacation rental with their families every year. We go to the Grand Canyon. It’s our second home.

As told to Frederick Dreier. This interview was edited for length and clarity. 

Madeleine Bryant is the co-founder of an environmental consulting agency in Flagstaff, Arizona.