Get your kicks on Route 66! With some Grand Canyon and other adventures

We threw all our bags in the room and were ready to get out and explore the Grand Canyon!!

We decided to take a short mile hike along the rim. The path is very easy and very clearly marked and it doesn't get too close, so it'd be a good hike for most people.







This is the Hopi House, which is right next to the El Tovar.



There is a huge gift shop inside, and outside there are regular performances from Native Americans.



These were inside the gift shop, I thought they were cool.

Then we went back out and continued along the trail.

Look at that sky:



This gift shop was a little farther along the path:



It is actually half gift shop, half little museum. The museum part said that it used to be a kind of curiosity/oddities shop. I really woulda loved to have seen that.

Continuing along the path...



Then we got super close to this elk!!



Well, the phone was zoomed a bit. I know not to get too close to wild animals, want to leave them their space. But it seemed to be used to people and didn't mind the big crowd.





I like to frame photos with trees. Thank you 9th grade photography class.



Sweet tree:



Yep, still all about the trees...





It didn't feel a mile less than 1.9 billion years.







At the end of the little trail there was a building with some geological exhibitions and a large picture window that was billed as 'the best view of the canyon'.





The building had this huge awesome model on display.



I love models.

We took a bus to the main visitor's center next. The bus route is actually real great, it is free and buses go numerous different places. We didn't get any pictures of the huge visitor's center, but there is a coffee shop and a building where you can sign up for backpacking permits and all sorts of stuff.

The bus then took us back to Bright Angel and we talked about what to do for dinner. Bright Angel has a semi expensive place to eat (so we were told in the lobby, we didn't eat there), and then they have a little ice cream and hot dog place. We didn't feel like eating at either and didn't know about the nice food court at the other hotel at this point, so we drove outside of the park into the little town.

We chose a Mexican place to eat, it was pretty typical Mexican type fare and we both thought it was good for what it was. I think it is called Plaza Bonita.

We were both super tired and decided to just drive back and call it a night after we got a few sunset pictures. We were going to be up super early in the morning to begin our hike into the canyon.





That little building to the left is another gift shop. I believe it originally started out as a private house to the guys that originally took mule tours into the canyon.

How'd you like that for a view from your bedroom?





Next up:

our hike into the Canyon!! Will we make it??
 
Lovely pics of the Canyon. I would love that view in my backyard. Thankfully, I don't sleepwalk! ;)

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to with your walk.
 
5 am dawned bright and early!

We were actually pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed :confused3

We had a quick breakfast and made sure that our hiking backpacks were packed up and ready to go.

There were several water refill stations along our hike but we wanted to make sure we had plenty.

We were also leaving the hotel, so I took a couple final photos.

I really liked this lantern.







Our view:



The Bright Angel trail head was about a minute walk from our room, so that was convenient.

The daily mule ride into the canyon was gathering as we walked by:



This was different than the ride we had signed up for. I might be a little off on these numbers, but I believe only 10 people plus guides get to go on this trip each day. You have to sign up about a year in advance for it. Everyone gets a mule and you ride on the trail (it is the same trail we walked, so as you look at pictures imagine going down it on a mule). The guides go before and behind you. It takes until afternoon to get down to Phantom Canyon Ranch. This is where you'll spend the rest of the afternoon and that night. You'll be treated to a real nice steak dinner (we later learned all the steaks and supplies for the Ranch are carted down by mules). Early the next morning everyone heads back up the canyon on their mules.



Down we go.





Parts of the trail were pretty steep.



This gateway through the rock was so cool!























Squirrel!



I love all the colors:





The moon is still up!





to be continued....
 










We reached the first water station. There was water and a bathroom and a little shaded sitting area. There were about 10 people breaking there, then we turned around and...



The mules caught up!

I was pretty excited about seeing them squeeze by on the trail.

This was the view from our 10 minute rest area:







Mule tracks!



This isn't the greatest picture to illustrate it, but it looks like there is a natural amphitheater at one point on the trail.





This was about as low as we got:



The rangers highly discourage anyone from walking all the way to the bottom and back in one day, they say that is where most of the injuries occur. Since we applied for but couldn't get a back packing permit (they were all sold out) we decided to turn around when we reached the 3 mile house stop. As the name implies, it was the water station 3 miles into the canyon, and it was about time we headed back out. I believe it was around 10 at this time, and we wanted to be back out of the canyon before the day reached it's hottest.

The walk down really wasn't that hard, for some reason my knee was hurting a bit. I think it's because I pulled something while jogging a week or so before, but it has never acted up since then.

But you know what they say...what goes down must come up. Ugh that hike back up was reaaaally strenuous.

Can one of the mules please come get me?



No seriously though, our mule guides later on the trip told us stories that when the mules come back up the canyon after the Phantom Canyon Ranch excursion, there are poor people who offer money to the mule riders for their mules because they are either exhausted or were unprepared for the walk back up.

Also, as we labored back up the trail, we saw people starting down in flip flops and some were just carrying a single bottle of pop.

If you plan on hiking any distance into the Canyon, I have a few recommendations based on our experience and hearing stories.

-start early. the earlier, the better. you do not want to be making that climb back up the trail in the hot afternoon sun.

-bring plenty of water in a refillable container. we drank a looot of water.

-bring a small snack for energy.

-make sure you have comfortable shoes. I guess some people are comfortable enough in flip flops to hike into and out of the GC, but I am not one of those people.

Anyway, it took us a while to make our way back up and we stopped frequently for short rests. It was pretty funny, we started leapfrogging with another couple. We would pass them while they were on break, then they would pass us. We started talking and they were so nice and pleasant.

We meet some of the nicest people while on hikes. Nature seems to make people happy.

Anyway...I don't really have a lot of pictures of the way up. I was tired.





We eventually did make it around noon.

Yay!!



My feet were pretty much pure orange from the dirt/dust:



We sat at the trail head and rested for a good 15-20 minutes. When we were finally a bit recovered we headed to the car to go find out camp site.



This night definitely helped out with the budget since the camp site was about $15 per night.

You get to park right by your campsite:



I would highly recommend the campsites. There are several bathrooms at each campsite and the one we used was very clean.

They have showers and laundry at the front of the campground.

We decided to drive around a bit and explore the campgrounds on the way to the aforementioned showers, and look who we found...



These guys are sooo used to humans it is not even funny.



Anyway, what happened next was probably the best $2 shower I have ever had. You cannot imagine the amount of dust. We both felt so much better. Our sunset bus tour was at 3:45. So we had a quick bite to eat at the campsite then went back to the Bright Angel lodge, which was our pick up area.

On the way we saw the Grand Canyon train pulling in:



We had some extra time so we looked around the gift shop and spotted this:



People, this is a big book. It was like over 300 pages. Watch yourself and your kids around the edge. It is not a time to test your bravado.

Anyway, I am about out of space for pictures, so the next update will cover our Sunset Bus Tour and the rest of the evening.
 
I'm not much of a hiker, the rim trail is more my speed. However, even I know that you don't wear flip flops while hiking down into the canyon. :rolleyes2 But, I don't understand how people can wear flip flops in a Disney park all day either. It never ceases to amaze! :sad2:

Great photos! Looks like you had perfect weather.
 
I'm not much of a hiker, the rim trail is more my speed. However, even I know that you don't wear flip flops while hiking down into the canyon. :rolleyes2 But, I don't understand how people can wear flip flops in a Disney park all day either. It never ceases to amaze! :sad2:

Great photos! Looks like you had perfect weather.

I know, right?! My little sister wears flip flops all day long in the parks. I live in flip flops in the summer, but I could only do about 2 hours tops in them before my feet would be killing me.

Yes the weather was wonderful. I am actually sitting here right now wishing I could go back.

I don't really want to rush through the GC stuff (the best is still to come! like our mule ride!), but I also want to talk about Sedona and Route 66 and the national parks and everything else.
 


Beautiful pictures of your hike. Glad you were smart and prepared. My Dad was a backpacker for 50 years and one of his favorite expressions is, "What goes up must come down. And there's always more up than down!"

That first shower after a long hiking is worth every penny. That and the first soda (or whatever beverage you prefer).

PHXscuba
 
Fantastic hike down. The scenery looks amazing when you look up to see the sheer walls. I hope to walk down a little; not looking forward to walking back up. :faint:

Oh....I will have walking shoes; not flip flops.
 
Beautiful pictures of your hike. Glad you were smart and prepared. My Dad was a backpacker for 50 years and one of his favorite expressions is, "What goes up must come down. And there's always more up than down!"

That first shower after a long hiking is worth every penny. That and the first soda (or whatever beverage you prefer).

PHXscuba

There was definitely more up than down, lemme tell ya!

Brian is an eagle scout, so he better be prepared at all times :thumbsup2

Hmm, I think we just had water hahaha, we are boring. And had limited supply in the car/campsite.

Fantastic hike down. The scenery looks amazing when you look up to see the sheer walls. I hope to walk down a little; not looking forward to walking back up. :faint:

Oh....I will have walking shoes; not flip flops.

:thumbsup2

Yeah, the good thing about this hike is you can go as far as you like. There are the water stations which are kind of like the natural break point, but really there are lots of rocks to sit on and plenty of places to take a little breather.

I would just caution you if you do this hike: as easy as it feels to go down, realize that it is going to be tough (somewhat tough, not to scare you) to go back up. So just keep that in mind. And also, on the way up, everyone takes breaks! Take as many as you need.
 
The bus arrived promptly to pick us up for our Sunset Tour at 3:45 pm.

There was a cost for this, I believe it was somewhere around $35 each, and we signed up for it at the Bright Angel concierge desk when we checked in. They also have a Sunrise tour.

We were the first two on the bus and the driver was super friendly and started chatting with us right away.

We stopped at two other hotels to pick up more guests, I think we ended up with about 20 of us.

The bus headed out east toward the Desert View area.

We drove right by the canyon the whole trip and had some real good views. Also, as the driver of the trip, it was wonderful to be able to sit back and stare out the window.



We made a stop at a viewpoint and got to go out and walk around for around half an hour.











Then we were all back onto the bus and traveled on to the Watchtower.



This viewing area had a really large tower (the watchtower, as it was so aptly named). There was also a little cafeteria, a general store and these guys!



Standing super close to people, as usual.







If you look close in that last picture you can see a sliver of the Colorado river.



Off to one side you could see the start of the desert:





Then we went into the tower itself.



On the bottom floor was.... surprise! Another gift shop. No wonder tourists spend so much more time in gift shops than looking at the GC.

Then you could start going up the stairs higher into the tower and there were interesting paintings and works of art to look at.









Then came the view from the top:













to be continued immediately...
 




Our time at the watchtower was up and we boarded the bus to head to our final spot, generally called the best sunset view of the Canyon on the Southern side.

We settled down with a ton of other people to watch.



I really enjoyed this area.

We were able to pick out some features of the Canyon that have nicknames.

There is a rock formation called the temple.



You can see it in about the middle of the picture on the very top of one of the large rock formations.

I also nicknamed the rock formation that is just to the right of the tree. I thought it looked very much like a phoenix. With the wings to either side, the outstretched head on the top and the tail on the bottom.

This was probably my favorite outlook. I loved the temple and the phoenix and everything else about it.











According to some other people there, the sunset this night was not the greatest, but I still had a fun time.

Pretty quickly after the sun had set it was time to get back onto the bus and head back to the hotels.

When we were driving around dropping people off we spotted the giant food court at the Maswik Lodge.

We decided to eat there and it was awesome. They had a little separate pizza place, then there was just one huge room that had all these different stations. We had done a lot of activity that day and hadn't really eaten a lot, so we went a bit overboard.

With both of us combined, we ended up with chili in a bread bowl, cornbread (my fav), 2 corn dogs, a salad and a hamburger. And then we actually ate most of it.

We were pretty wiped out since we'd been up since five, so after we were done pigging out we headed back to the campsite and were very quickly asleep.

Lemme tell ya, it is not hard to fall asleep on the ground in a sleeping bag if you've been awake since 5 am and hiked 6 miles into and out of the Grand canyon. If anyone has trouble sleeping, I recommend doing just that. You'll fall asleep right quick.

Coming up in the next installment:

-we wake up early yet again for our....mule ride!!!
 
We were up with the sun again...at 5 am. No one is surprised.

We didn't really feel that tired though because today is our mule ride!! We have been looking forward to this since we decided to do the Grand Canyon trip.

I think I mentioned before we had signed up for this upon our check in to Bright Angel.

This is different than the mule trip into the Canyon (which fills up a year in advance, unless you wanna go in the winter, our mule guides told us you can get that reservation less than a year in advance). This is just a 3 hour round trip ride that you take in the woods by the GC, then you end up at an overlook for a snack and a break.

They have a morning ride which we had to check in at the stable at 7:30, and an afternoon ride. We chose the morning ride because we didn't want to be riding when it was too hot.

Anyway, we got our campsite packed up super quick. We kinda just threw stuff into the back of the car, we were going to organize all the bags when we got to our new hotel that night.

Dressed in our best mule riding clothes (um yeah...I guess they were just normal clothes. We don't have special mule riding clothes), we once again headed back to the Bright Angel Lodge to check in.

Brian wanted to drive through the horse camp to see if there were any horses. So we took a little detour and checked out the horse area. Unfortunately, we didn't see any horses, but what we did see was so funny!

There was a whole herd of elk spread out all over these campers' tents! Imagine hearing a noise and waking up and looking outside your tent to see a giant elk right next to you. I didn't get any pictures because the phone was getting charged up for our ride. But it was so weird/funny.

There are a few rules for the mule rides:

-long pants
-closed toe shoes
-no loose cameras/phones
-a hat

They have loaner hats at the check in area. I had a Steelers baseball hat but Brian needed a hat so he got a loaner. They also require that the hats have some sort of strap, so we both got pieces of string from the concierge desk to secure out hats.

We also got these super awesome water canteens to drink from during the trip (then you get to keep them! free souvenir! kind of). I am waiting til we leave the GC to post pictures of all our GC souvenirs, I will be sure to include a picture of these then.

By now it was the super late hour of 6:30, so we still had a lot of time before our ride. We decided to sit down at the little bar/cafe at the Bright Angel. They have a band that sets up sometimes at nights and plays and you can get drinks there, but in the morning it was set up as kind of a quick service breakfast place.

If you can believe it, many people had been there before us (no one sleeps in at the GC) so lots of the pre-made items are gone (like the croissants that I really wanted). I think we ended up with coffee, juice, bagels and fruit. Not a bad breakfast.

After that we grabbed a couple things from the gift shop (that you'll see in a bit).

And then it was finallllly time!!

We left our car parked at Bright Angel Lodge and took the very short walk across the train tracks to the stable. We arrived around 7 and there was only one other couple there so far.

There was one mule guide there who had us sign a paper and then we were our own until 7:30.

I asked the guide if we could pet the mules (who were all waiting in a pen right in front of us!!!) and he told me it was ok as long as I asked them first (this guide was Buck, who I became enamored with and who you'll hear a lot about later).

And finally...picture time!!







First, you can see Buck in the background of this picture.

Second, we asked Buck why this poor mule had to wear a muzzle. He called them Hannibal Lecter masks and said the extra bitey mules had to wear them. Not that the mules bite people, but apparently some of them can chew through anything, including other mules.





I liked that mule with the little top knot. The answer why some have the top knot and the others don't: some of the mules simply don't like having the hair shaved off so they get to keep it.



At 7:30 it looked like everyone had arrived (our group had approximately 20 people + 3 guides) the stable manager came out to give us some instructions. He explained what was going to happen and that we would be assigned a mule and we would be referred to by our
mule's name, so we best remember it. He also showed us our mule 'motivators' (a whip like kind of thing) and explained to us that we would sometimes have to use them, and we were to hit as hard as we could if we had to because we could not hurt them and went into a funny story of how mules communicate with each other by kicking one another.

We could leave our cameras out if they had straps, but we were not allowed to take any pictures during the ride, so my pictures are going to be a bit sparse for a while.

He introduced us to our three guides for our ride, who were Liz, Buck and Button.

Then we all get lined up and somehow Brian and I ended up bringing up the rear of the line.

We made friends with the mother and son in front of us (he wasn't that young, there is a minimum age for the mules, I am going to guess that it is either 16 or 18). We made friends and tried to reassure the son because he was nervous about doing the ride.

The stable manager went down the line assigning people mules and the guides led the people over to their mules.

The son by us was excited by his mule, Seymour, which was apparently the same name as his first car, so he took that as a good sign.

The stable manager told Brian and I to switch places, so I was in the very back of the line. Which made me a bit nervous because he asked us our riding experience (I have a horse, Brian had been on one trail ride at Disney before this), so I was pretty sure he was going to give me a misbehaving mule.

Brian was assigned Truman, and I got Charlie.

We were the last to mount up, so then we were quickly off. Buck led the way, then Button was riding up and down the column and Liz was directly behind me in the back.

We crossed over the train tracks and headed out on the trail, which was lovely and very wooded.

Shortly after we started, Liz and Button traded spaces and Button took it upon himself to entertain me (and anyone else who could hear, I think Brian could at least) with talking for the rest of the time.

I think he was pretty young and he was born in Utah and he used to work in Bryce Canyon National Park. He said that we absolutely had to make it there sometime, that it is beautiful. Fun fact: Utah has the third most national parks with 5, does anyone know what the states are with the highest and second highest number of parks?

He was also headed back to Utah pretty soon and he was going to be a trick roper. He showed off some roping tricks which was pretty cool because I wanted to do all that cowboy stuff when I was little.

Then we got to hear a little bit about how the Grand Canyon employees live. They live in dorm/apartment type places, and most of them except for the most senior have roommates.

There is no TV reception (I think the hotels that do have TVs must have satellite, I am not sure how it works but that is what he said). I imagine it is quite the experience to live and work there.

Then Button yelled for everyone to look, he'd spotted a bobcat. I was super excited because the bus driver from the night before had talked of a bobcat that hung around the hotels to eat all the super fat squirrels that people insist on feeding, so I thought this was him.

No :confused3 He was just making a joke because we shortly passed a bobcat (the heavy equipment kind of bobcat, not the animal bobcat). I totally fell for it so I was not pleased. :sad1:

Anyway, we had a nice uneventful ride and eventually arrived at the GC vista and our halfway point.

There was a hitching post for all of our mules and the guides hobbled theirs. There were a few very clean port o potties for us to use if we needed them, then we walked the few short feet to the vista and the guides handed out little snack packs and drinks.

We had approximately a 15 minute break to relax and take some pictures of the Canyon.









Button took our picture:







Then it was time to mount back up and finish our ride.

The guides came around and took pictures for whoever wanted them:



Miss you Charlie and Truman!



Truman was an old man mule and he only had one year left at the Canyon, at which point he will be auctioned off. Apparently retired Grand Canyon mules are in high demand (just like Disney trail horses).

Ahhhhh look how big Charlie's ears are!! Love him.





And yes, if you noticed, Brian made me switch him hats so he could wear the Steelers hat and I had to wear the loaner.



I like this picture because you can see the back end of Big Steve (Button's mule). Big Steve is the outcome of a donkey and a draft horse, so he is huuuuge. Apparently you can get all sorts of different looking mules depending on what kind of horse gets matched up with the donkey.

Another fun fact: the horse is always the mom of the mule, because mules are bigger than donkeys so the mom donkey probably wouldn't have an easy time giving birth to the mule. Also, mules are sterile (these have been fun facts, brought to you by Sheldon Cooper).

One of my favorite other mules was a particular mule named Sassy. She really was Sassy and awesome. Also, our young friend ended up loving Seymour and the mule ride and he had so much fun. So if you or someone you know is nervous about the ride, just know you/they will most likely end up loving it.

On the way back, Liz led the column, Button and Big Steve got to roam and Buck brought up the rear. So we got to talk the whole way :)

Now Buck is probably the closest thing that exists to an actual, real life cowboy these days. First off, he doesn't like being called a cowboy (which means he probably is one).

He never stays in one place for more than a season. He drifts around doing cattle herds (like actual honest to goodness real cattle herds in the middle of Montana and stuff), blacksmithing (he had done blacksmithing over the winter at the Grand Canyon for the mules), and he is also sometimes a hunting guide.

He talked about how his lifestyle kind of sucks because it makes it hard to keep a relationship when he moves so often. But he doesn't really know any other way, and he can't stay still for too long. Yep, real cowboy.

Then he talked a lot about training horses/mules. He is pretty much a mule whisperer.

He also used to lead the mule train that went into the Canyon to deliver supplies to the Phantom Canyon Ranch.

It was a very interesting ride back. And he kind of made fun of Button for being flashy. He said he was the cowboy, not him.

We were almost back to the stable and were walking right alongside the train tracks. From far off we heard a train whistle, and Buck was excited because it was a steam train engine (he could tell by the whistle). He said nothing was better than hearing an old fashioned
steam train engine. Except...the steam trains didn't usually come at this time of the day and the mules were not used to the loud noise, since the more modern day trains are relatively quiet, comparatively.

He was nervous that some of the mules might bolt, and then was super annoyed that Liz kind of stopped the column, he wanted the mules moving so they couldn't concentrate on the coming sounds so much.

He did mention that mules were much better with strange, loud sounds. Horses will bolt first and think later, and mules will take a little bit of time to think about it at least before bolting.

So anyway here we are, high noon, some of the mules moving, some of them stopped. The train whistle grew louder as it bore down on us. Buck grew increasingly nervous.

Several of the mules decided to put on a show for the train passengers and they bolted.

Including Truman. So off Brian goes, Charlie tries to follow but I have owned a stubborn quarter horse for years so I stopped that mule in his tracks.

I've lost sight of Brian. I'm thinking, oh great, rest of the vacation is going to be spent in the ER.

But then Brian and Truman come walking back into sight and fall back into line. Everyone else is rounded up and we get back on our way.

Win!

We were actually very close to the stable at this point, so our ride was about over.

All the tourists getting off the train loved us and took a ton of pictures. Who doesn't want pictures of a mule train greeting you as you arrive at the Grand Canyon?!

Then we were over the tracks and back at the stable. We said goodbye to Charlie and Truman and tipped the guides (tips are welcome but not required).

The mule ride was so awesome! I can't recommend it enough. And who doesn't want to cross 'mule ride at the Grand Canyon' off their bucket list??

Only bad thing, doing a 6 mile hike into and out of the canyon and a 3 hour mule ride the next morning...not so great on the muscles. We were both super sore and hurting.

But it was worth it.

There is our trouble making steam engine!







You can see the mules in their enclosure up above the train.



We were very sad but it was time for us to be leaving the Grand Canyon. We probably could have spent at least another full day there, if not more. There were still several hikes we didn't get to try out. The rangers put on talks and programs every day and night and we
hadn't been able to make it to any of those (they have a calendar of talks at the check in area at the Lodge). Not to mention activities like rafting down inside the Canyon in the Colorado river.
 
:laughing: We got snookered by the "bobcat" line too when we were in Yosemite a few years ago. That one apparently never gets old!

Okay, I"ll play. How about #1 California and #2, Alaska.
 
I had one or two more things to grab at the gift shops, so we headed there and I grabbed a few last minute pictures.



The El Tovar:



The train again:



aaaand then I missed the exit turn off and had to go around the one way lodge loop again.

Pretty smart.

Hello Bright Angel Lodge again!



Hello blurry mules who are getting ready for their afternoon ride!



And then we were on the road again:



Life is a highway people. Life is a highway.

We had a quick pit stop at the Watchtower and took our last look at the Canyon. Then we were onto parts unknown.



The Canyon continued along beside us and got smaller and smaller (and my face got larger and larger).









Here I am going to take a little time out and show our souvenirs.



I love these socks!! I really wanted something to commemorate the mule ride, but I didn't like the one mule tshirt they had, so I got these socks :banana:



These are our water skins and one of the only souvenirs Brian chose for the entire trip: a genuine Grand Canyon mule horse shoe. Buck told us how to tell the difference between a winter shoe and a summer shoe, and we told him we purchased a winter shoe and he said that he was the one who took that shoe off, since he did all the winter shoes. So that is pretty cool.



Brian also chose that.

To the left of the bird you can kind of see my POTC dog keys. Found these really old keys at an antique place that reminded me of those, so I bought them for my adventurer's bar that we are going to build when we get a permanent house.



We got these of national parks they we visited on the trip and a few that we hope to visit in the future. I plan on putting them all in a frame together at some point.



And this is our poster that we love that we got at the Watchtower. If you couldn't tell by now, we love the mules.



A tshirt for me.



And since I am 5, I had to get this painted pony. They had about 20 different ones and I loved all of them. We still haven't found a safe place for him to live in the house yet.

That about wraps it up for the Grand Canyon then. You've seen all our adventures and all our purchases and some of our pictures.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions or if I could help you to plan your trip.

Up next: 2 surprise road trip stops as we make our way to Route 66.
 
That mule ride is fantastic. I looked at doing that; but I think my DS is under age. They take riders aged 16 and up. :(


Maybe next time.

Thanks for sharing. I'm all excited to get there in September now.
 
The Bobcat joke made me laugh!

Sounds like a great mule ride. We did a family horseback ride on the beach a few years ago in Mexico -- even DS5 could ride -- and it was amazing. None of us are really horsemen, so it's nice when the guides are supportive and the ride is more about the view than showing off your riding skills.

Interested to see where you went next!

PHXscuba
 
:laughing: We got snookered by the "bobcat" line too when we were in Yosemite a few years ago. That one apparently never gets old!

Okay, I"ll play. How about #1 California and #2, Alaska.

What is it?! Like a National Parks tradition to have bobcats lying around so the guides can make jokes? hahaha they are devious.

You are almost right. California and Alaska are both tied for first with 8 each.

That mule ride is fantastic. I looked at doing that; but I think my DS is under age. They take riders aged 16 and up. :(


Maybe next time.

Thanks for sharing. I'm all excited to get there in September now.

Aww yes you will have to go back for it!

But don't worry, there is tons of other stuff to do.

Did you guys make any plans yet on things you want to do?

The Bobcat joke made me laugh!

Sounds like a great mule ride. We did a family horseback ride on the beach a few years ago in Mexico -- even DS5 could ride -- and it was amazing. None of us are really horsemen, so it's nice when the guides are supportive and the ride is more about the view than showing off your riding skills.

Interested to see where you went next!

PHXscuba

Yeah, it was an easy ride except for the few mules that bolted :cool1:

It really was a fun, relaxing time. I'd never been on a mule before and I really like them now (as if you couldn't tell).

We make 2 stops before we hit our hotel.

One involves history, and one involves nature (or perhaps natural history).
 

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