Join National Geographic photographer/filmmaker Pete McBride and Author Kevin Fedarko on a gritty and epic year-long quest through the entire length of the Grand Canyon—not “rim to rim” as has been tackled by many—but “end to end.” This route, if floated down the river, would cover 250 miles. On foot, where there are no trails, it covers 750 miles.

Enduring slot canyons, scorching sun, and snow, McBride and Fedarko made this epic journey to highlight the many challenges facing this iconic landscape today, from overdevelopment to the threat of contamination from uranium mines at the canyon’s edge. Their expedition also checks in with the many Native American tribes who still call the Grand Canyon National Park home, and they invite us to contemplate the value of wild spaces. After completing the journey, National Geographic named the two men “Adventurers of the Year.”

Native Coloradan Pete McBride has spent two decades documenting our world. A self-taught photographer, filmmaker, writer, and film narrator, he is a Sony Artisan of Imagery and has traveled on assignment to over 75 countries for National Geographic, Smithsonian, Google, The Nature Conservancy, and others. McBride’s book on this Grand Canyon expedition won a National Outdoor Book Award, and his documentary for National Geographic, Into the Canyon, was nominated for an Emmy in 2020. McBride’s 2021 book, Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the World’s Most Quiet Places, was named one of the Top Photo Books of 2021 by both Smithsonian Magazine and The Week. Smithsonian also named his latest book, Colorado River: Chasing Water one of the Ten Best Photography Books of 2024. All three of his books won the National Outdoor Book Award of the year for Photography.

Kevin Fedarko has spent the better part of the past 20 years writing about adventure, conservation, exploration, and the Grand Canyon. He studied Russian history at Oxford before joining the staff at TIME, where he worked primarily on the foreign affairs desk, then later moved to Outside magazine, where he was a senior editor. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon and A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, which won both the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature and the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Fedarko’s writings have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, and Esquire, among other publications, and a trio of his stories from the Himalayas, the Horn of Africa, and the Colorado River are anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing.