Grand Canyon Mules 2008


Se those white spots in the picture? It was snowing as I reached the mule corral!	The mules didn't mind the snow, but a lot of them seemed to...	feel it was...	too early in the morning to be up ready for work.

Bill was glad he found his fuzzy cap behind the seat in the Honda. Brr.

Yep, as warm and cozy as the fuzzy mules.

I sneaked a peek at Bill during the head wrangler's orientation talk...	...then went back to behaving myself and paying attention.	Okay. Ready to head into the corral for mule assignment.	Here's our group of five gathered near the wrangler.

Josh, Michele, Kate, Joanna, & Gracie	One of the wranglers helps me get my Booda Bag ready to hang over the horn.	Then he gave me a boost up, and I'm on!	There was discussion among them as they chose appropriate mules for the others in our group.

Finally...we're off!	Heading for that first sharp turn.	And back around the second.	We get farther and farther away from the rim so here's where my little camera takes over.

I struggled at first trying to take pictures while moving along those steep edges. We stopped briefly for practice "parking."	We turned our mules to face the edge and placed the knotted reins over the saddle horn to keep them from reaching down for wisps of grass.	Then we're off again. The snow had long ago stopped and we were getting a bit too warm.	But no chance to stop yet to take of coats, so on we went.

..reaching dry and dusty trails where the mules sneezed and coughed to keep their lungs clear.	Whew, rest area in sight!	At Indian Gardens we got off and hiked a short distance up to the right where there were outstanding facilities!!	Much relieved, we all mounted and headed back out on the trail.

Here's the area where we ate lunch, not far the mules' hitching post. Pesky squirrels tried repeatedly to steal our carrots!	I only had to turn around from where I was standing in the previous picture to get these views of the muddy Colorado River.	Not only was spring snow melt dirtying the waters, there had also been a release of water from the upriver dam to help rebuild silt deposits along the banks.	More craggy rocks along the lunch area.

Some of the local cactus.	And more. The purple coloring comes from the alkalinity of the soil.	Mounting back up after lunch.	And heading back.

Per instructions, we always tried to keep the mules "nose to tail."	Look at that bed of cactus. Not a good time to take a tumble.	Indian Gardens area comes back into view.	Sometimes Bubba lagged, but he was easy to speed up with a simple touch of my heels.

Look at how high that rim is above us. We're going to climb that??	Oh, so pretty.	Bubba wanted to be in the picture, too.	The rock of these red cliffs is really gray, but the iron dust and coloring washes and blows down and turns it all red.

Here you can see a bit of gray peeking through.	This is Sweetie Pie, the mule Michelle was on. She tended to lose concentration and fall back and was almost impervious to Michelle's use of the "mule motivator." (AKA the crop or whip, which Sweetie pie thought was just Mayflies.)	Another view over Bubba's ears, this time looking down.	The canyon has so many beautiful views.

Clouds are moving in from the north.	Switchback after switchback we work our way up. Hikers stick out their thumbs to try to catch a lift to the top. :-)	As we neared the top, Bill caught a pic of us passing through the "hole in the wall." I'm 4th in line, in the dark jacket.

This one I took, looking back at Michelle & Josh.	Our guide, Doug, was riding a fairly new mule, helping him learn the ropes of canyon riding.	Wow, what a fantastic trip!	Back at the beginning of Bright Angel Trail.

We lined our mules up along the corral rails and waited for our turns to dismount.	The guide said "two mules per section," and we had three...	...so I got in a little extra riding (all of ten steps) and moved Bubba to the left.	For safety reasons, everyone had to have a wrangler standing by to assist with mounting and dismounting.

Yep, I was tired -- very, very happy, but tired.	Doug read what our certificates said...	...and then awarded each of us our Mule Master certificates!