Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Stagecoach Line Ultra

Run or ride the Arizona Trail from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon across the ancestral lands of the Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Hualapai, Southern Paiute, Navajo and many other indigenous people. The racecourse roughly follows the historic stagecoach line tourists took to reach the Grand Canyon in the 1890s. The route includes singletrack, doubletrack, and forest roads along the Arizona National Scenic Trail through high desert and alpine terrain. We’ve added more trail miles for the 100-mile runners and MTBers.

Run or ride through expansive ponderosa pine and piñon-juniper forests, grasslands, and golden leafed aspen stands. The course starts near 7,500 feet and reaches a maximum elevation near 9,000 feet. The 100-mile has about 7,000 feet of gain. The 55k has roughly 2,300 feet of gain. There’s a 31.5-hour cut-off for 100-mile runners/relays and 15-hours to complete the 100-mile bike ride/relay. 55k runners have 10 hours to complete the course.

This event begins a few miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, at the Flagstaff Hotshots Ranch off Snowbowl Road and finishes in Tusayan, Arizona, the entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. A majority of the Stagecoach course follows the Arizona Trail and the historic Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Stagecoach Line route used by adventure seeking tourists between 1897 and 1901. Many of today’s race-day aid stations are located at the original stage line rest stops and watering holes.

Course footing varies between single-track, two-track and maintained forest dirt roads. Runners pass from heavily vegetated ponderosa pine and alpine aspen forests to sparsely vegetated pinion-juniper grasslands and back again. The 100-mile course starts at 7,400’ (Hotshots Ranch), reaches a maximum elevation of 8,800’ (at Aspen Corner, mile 6), finishes at 6,600’ (Tusayan) and has approximately 7,000’ of climbing.

Runners traverse over a shoulder of Arizona’s highest mountain, Humphrey’s Peak, through the high alpine meadows of the Hart Prairie Preserve, across 422-square mile Babbitt Ranches, and along the Coconino Rim where views of the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, and Navajo Mountain await.

If you’re interested in moving your body across ultra distances filled with some of the most iconic scenery in the West, join this September!