The government opened and we decided to head for the Grand Canyon!! However, we (David) had cancelled our reservations earlier in the week. Luckily, the campground guy helped us out when we arrived as David was "shocked" to see that our reservations were gone!!! We had a camping spot and I was HAPPY! We saw a female elk when we were coming into the park.
That night we saw a Bull elk at the visitor center. It charged a tourist that came to close to him. We got our first opportunity to see the Grand Canyon there. It is truly "GRAND" and magnificent
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I will say that we say more elk here than at Yellowstone (with the exception of that HUGE herd at Hayden Valley). We even had an elk family that came through our campground one evening. There was a bull elk, 4 females, a young female and a spike buck.
We went on a 7 mile hike along the south rim of the canyon. AMAZING views!! After hiking we stopped by the mule ride area and they had a cancellation for the Phantom Mule Ride!! This is the tour that I had tried to get 9 months ago but they were taking 2014 reservations. This was the Mack Daddy mule ride!! We stayed an extra night at GC to do this.
The Grand Canyon Nat. Park has it's own k-12 school. It's the only National Park with a school.
We saw a caution Mountain Lion sign (you know we didn't see one lol) We did a couple of short hikes, a 2 mile and a 3 mile one.
Finally, it was Sunday and we were going to Phantom Ranch. We had to be at the Lodge at 6:45 am to meet with the wranglers. There are 10 riders each day that can go on the mule ride. There were 7 people from one family (the Fishers), David and I, and Mary (who came by herself). The cancellation had come from the Fisher group. Their friends had to cancel because a grandchild decided to be born 3 weeks early. The group was so fun!
Before you get on the mules, the mule handler gives you 30 minutes of rules. Rule # 1 --STAY on your mule!! No matter what (he goes down on his belly), STAY on your mule!
My friends know that I'm afraid of heights, so riding the mule was BIG for me. The first 2 or 3 switchbacks were terrifying (I won't lie). But after that, it was the BEST experience I've ever had. Berta, was my mule and Zug Zug was David's mule. I trusted Berta and she was fantastic. The trails are steep and narrow in many cases. We are continually passing hikers on the trail. It took 5 and 1/2 hours to get to Phantom Ranch. We went down the Bright Angel Trail. We had to go over a black suspension bridge that went over the Colorado River. Whew!!
Phantom Ranch is over 100 years old. You have to book this adventure over a year in advance so we got lucky to get this cancellation. David and I stayed in our own 100 year old cabin. We had steak dinners that were served family style. The mule riders were seated together. Hikers were at the other tables. There were 2 ranger talks, at 4:00 and 7:30 pm. We saw a herd of mule deer and a gray fox. David and I were in bed and asleep by 8:50! We were up at 5:45 am and had breakfast and then we saddled up and were riding out of Phantom Ranch by 7:30!
Today was all UPWARD!! We went up South Kaibab trail. It was steep and loaded with switchbacks!! The mules worked hard! We did have one mule fall down but his rider stayed on and "Snoopy" popped back up. I was so glad I didn't see it as the mule was behind me.
We did see 3 California Condors today! One of our guides has been in the Grand Canyon for a month and this was the first time he has seen a condor. There are only 75 birds in the Grand Canyon. They have a wing span of 9 1/2 feet. There were almost on the edge of extinction.
It took us about 4 and 1/2 hours to get to the rim. Some scary parts!!
This was the highlight of our trip. Our guide told us that this trip was the most difficult guided trips in the US. It was hard but it was so rewarding--- to make the trek and to sleep in the bottom of the Grand Canyon was "da bomb"!!
What a loss it would have been had we not been able to see the Grand Canyon--- and to experience the Grand Canyon. Only 3% of the millions that come to the Grand Canyon go down into the Canyon. And only .5 % go down into the Canyon on a mule. We were SO very fortunate.
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