A View From A Mule

The Grand Canyon is a vast and amazing place, unlike anywhere else I’ve ever seen. To see it atop a mule is truly high adventure.

We got up early for the two hour drive to the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon where the mule ride originates. It was still dark when we arrived, the sky turning just the least bit from black to dark gray. But, inspite of sleepiness our enthusiasim and adrenaline was running high.

There are some pretty strict requirements for weight and height ( and they do weigh everyone). Riders also have to be fluent in English (I found that refreshing – this is our country’s language, right!) and if there is  any doubt, you will be tested on your ability to speak and understand English.

We went through a 30 minute orientation to prepare us for this wonderful adventure. We were advised not to go if we were afraid of heights. (Not a problem for Mike and I, afterall we bungeed 160 feet into a gorge in Canada last year and loved it.)  After learning how to handle the mules, we finally got to meet them. Wow, they were so much larger than I had thought, as tall as horses but much thicker bodied. I was assigned to Little Jed. He had a velvet-soft nose and a resigned look. I thanked him in advance for sharing his day and this adventure with me.  He was shorter than the mule Mike was given, but still a pretty big animal. The stirrup was eye-level for me. I looked at the guide and asked if anyone really thought I could get my foot in the stirrup much less  get up on Little Jed. Well, it did take a push from below but up I went.

The mules are selected for temperament, strength and endurance and Little Jed was a sweetie. Our guide was a lovely wisp of a woman who looked like she should be a model for cowgirl clothes and she could hoist me up on the mule with one hand.

The 7 hour ride began at sunrise at the Stone Corral at the head of Bright Angel Trail. What an awesome beginning with the sun just touching the canyon rim. I had never seen the Grand Canyon before and it really

takes your breath away. The photo above looks down at where we are headed. You can see the tiny trail mid-picture. It’s way down there. We were about to drop several thousand feet at this point. President Theodore Roosevelt  said  that every American should try to see it at sometime in their life.  I think it should be counted as the eighth wonder of the world.

Brief stops were made every 45 minutes or so to rest the mules, but we were not allowed to dismount.  Although it wasn’t hot at the beginning of the trip, by the time we reached Indian Gardens, the first rest stop, the temperature was 112 degrees. Now that is hot! We desended 4000 feet in less than three miles on steep narrow paths (sometime only the width of the mule) with dizzying hairpin turns. On one side of the path the canyon wall goes straight up on the other straight down. The mules tend to like walking on the edge away from the “up wall” to avoid the radient heat emanating form the rock.

Indian Gardens has restrooms and is one of only two places that we could get off the mules for a few moments. There was tree cover there and a place to water the mules and to refill our water bottles. As soon as we dismounted our guide hosed us off.  Yes, sprayed us head to toe with a hose. Cold, refreshing, startling, yikes!  After a quick 10 minute stop we were back on the mules and heading to Plateau Point for a gorgeous view of the Colorado river thousands of feet below. We enjoyed a box lunch and a brief rest before the return trip up to the South Rim. We lunched here above tha Colorado River with some crows who hoped to share our leftovers.

The trip back  was long and hot with another hosing off at Indian Gardens. Half way up we saw a big horn sheep on the trail ahead. There were hikers taking photos and he didn’t seem afraid of them but when he spotted us, he definately wasn’t happy sharing the trail with the mules. The mules were a little anxious as well.  The ram got skittish, not knowing where to go,

and just as I pulled up beside him he jumped on a rock to my right and I grabbed this lucky shot.

This is definately a very challenging trip. Not for everyone. We were saddle sore for a couple of days after. Truth is we could barely walk for the next several hours. But, would I do it again, Absolutely!  And I am so glad we had the opportunity for this great adventure because the day trip will be no more after September, though the 2 day mule ride down to Phantom Ranch will still continue.

If you haven’t ever been to the Grand Canyon, I highly reccommend it. What an incredibly spectacular place,

unique in all the world with a beauty that just seeps into your soul.

An Aerial Nature Walk

We recently returned from a fun hot air ballooning adventure in Sedona, Arizona.  Our pilot picked us up at 5 a.m. and drove us to the launch site out in the middle of the desert. The sky was black and just beginning to turn gray as the ground crew began to lay out the the balloon (envelope) on the ground, which would reach over 90 feet tall when fully inflated.

The crew worked quickly and efficentially attatching the basket and  filling the enevlope with air. Watching the balloon inflate is part of the fun and excitement. Our anticipation rose along with the balloon as it began to undulate and dance as it filled. Then the burner was turned on.  Suddenly, the basket which had been laying on it’s side tilted upright and the pilot said hop in. Just that quick we loaded in and we lifted of so gently that we didn’t even realize we were off the ground.

We took off in tandem with a second balloon. In the photo below you can see the corner of our basket. We were pretty high above the other balloon at the time. It was still quite early so the land below is dark.

It is a truly magical feeling soaring with the wind, watching the sunrise bring the landscape below to life as we were gliding over Mother Nature’s own beautiful panoramic Red Rock Canyon. Our balloon held 16 people. It was fun to share this adventure with our son, his wife and their children. Mike and I are with our granddaughter in the photo below.

The pilot and crew were hilarious, cracking  jokes back and forth over the two-way. The pilot showed us points of interest including wildlife as we passed over the desert  below us. We saw deer, jack rabbit and lots of different birds. (We sure scared that rabbit.)  We rose to about 3000 feet but moved up  and down to different altitudes to catch the various wind currents.

The ride is so quiet and calm, (except when the burner is fired – now that is loud). There is hardly any sensation of movement,  just the desert  passing beneath tells you that you are one with the wind.  The scenery was breathtaking.  The sun lifted the hidden colors of the landscape as the world below us awakened to the day. That really spoke to me as an artist.

The chase crew accurately guessed where we would land and were there to greet us. We set down as gently as we had lifted off.  Then we were treated to a celebratory champagne breakfast. It was an exhillirating start to the day.

Walnut Canyon Cliff Dwellings

My husband, Mike, and I recently traveled to Arizona with our son and his family. One of the fascinating places we visited was the Walnut Canyon National  Monument. The Sinagua people lived here from about A.D. 1125 to 1250. Sinagua is Spanish for “without water”. They were young people, hardly anyone lived past 40. They grew up fast, by the time they were teenagers they were probably parents. Food and water were scarce. They hunted the game in the canyon and farmed corn and squash on the mesa above.

We climbed the 260 steps down and back up to see the remains of  the homes, rock alcoves really, carved into the steep walls high above the canyon floor. (Whew, that’s a lot of steps, but the Sinaguans probably did it several times every day.) The rooms were tiny with low ceilings.  You can see in the photo my grandaughter, Haley, 11, can easily touch the ceiling.

All of the more than 300 cliff dwelling rooms in Walnut Canyon were built in these natural alcoves. The massive limestone overhangs made a perfect watertight roof. They piled up rocks to create walls to divide the spaces into rooms.

Many of the rooms were used to store food and water for the hard winter months.  Other rooms were for sleeping  and some for cooking. The doorways were so small that I had to bend down to go through, and I’m short so the Sinagua must have been very small people.

When the Sinaguan people  deserted the area they left behind  pottery, woven mats and tools that they had used. Much of it was pilfered away in the 18oos by visitors to the area. However enough remained  to give an amazing record of what their life was like and this outdoor museum remains a precious link to their culture.

The ceilings in some of the rooms are black with soot from their cooking fires. Because there was so little water, especially in the hot summer , they collected snow melt in great pots to last them through  the dry seasons.  Just to the right of center and about a third of the way down from top you can see three rows of openings, tiny black holes that are the cliff rooms.  This shows how inaccessible the dwellings were. The canyon where they hunted was far below, out of sight in this photo, and the mesa where they farmed high above the dwellings. The photo below is a closer view of the homes in the cliff walls.

No one knows for sure why the Sinagua left the area, perhaps disease or famine.  Nevertheless, they left a fascinating legacy that filled me and my family with awe of a way of life so difficult, in a place so rugged and dangerous that one misstep could send you tumbling down hundreds of feet into the rocky gorge. And yet they survived in this beautiful canyon for over a hundred years.

If you are in this area  near Sedona, Arizona, it is certainly worth a visit.

Saving Bees

When we were having the shrubbery around the house trimmed the other day the yardman called our attention to a swarm of bees that had found a way into the eves of our house. He told us they were inside the wall and that we needed an exterminator or we could be facing some extensive damage.  We called one place that said they would have to destroy the hive and the bees.

We try not to  kill anything. If we find a bug in the house my husband captures it and releases it outside. So he found another company who could remove the bees and the hive without killing the bees.

Wow, what they found was a huge honeycomb just inside the brick outerwall of our house. Thousands of bees! They believed, judging by the size of it, that it had been there  for several years. Mike’s infrared camera showed that it was roughly triangular shaped, about three and a half feet wide at the top and four feet long. This  colorful scan is really pretty, I think and it told the men exactly where to cut out the wall board.

The men donned protective gear, took out a huge piece of the wall and vaccumed up the bees, queen and all. Then they peeled the honeycomb off put it in a bucket and took the whole shebang to to a beekeeper who would reunite the bees with their hive. Almost all of the bees were saved. Those that weren’t vaccumned into the safe bag were very docile and confused, essentially lost without their home.  Later we saw some of them trying to get into the closed up hole under the eves. By this morning they were all gone.

We are fortunate  that we could find people who knew how to save as many as possible. Though we are glad to have them out of our home, we can feel good that most of them did not have to be harmed in the process.  You can find critter rescue groups in your area of the country for most all kinds of animals on the internet. If they are theatening your space, they still deserve a chance to be safely and humanely relocated.

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