High Country Running: Stagecoach Line Races: it happens on the way to the Canyon

Cocodona has concluded but have no fear — this year’s local ultrarunning fun isn’t over. This September, Flagstaff’s original 100-mile race guides runners and mountain bikers from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon on the iconic Arizona National Scenic Trail. The racecourse traces the historic stagecoach line tourists took to reach the Grand Canyon in the 1890s and crisscrosses the ancestral lands of the Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Hualapai, Southern Paiute, Navajo and other Indigenous people.

Born in 2013 through a unique collaboration between Babbitt Ranches (the event’s title sponsor), the Arizona Trail Association and the Northern Arizona Trail Running Association, the Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Stagecoach Line race saw 17 solo 100-mile finishers. Today, the event has grown to offer a 100-mile solo run, 55K solo run, 100-mile solo mountain bike ride, and many bike and run team relay options.