The Hil Street Journal

Arizona Recap Two: Grand Canyon Mule Ride!

So, Ryan and I woke up early Saturday morning to ride the mules. Boy was I scared! What if a hiker scares my mule? What if my mule trips? What if my mule is really tall? (I don't know why I was concerned about the height of my mule ... being like three feet higher on a mule does not matter when you are on a 500 foot cliff – silly me!)

But then I met my sweet mule, Chester. What a delightful mule! He was really focused on, well … EATING. It was funny to watch him eat everything, but it was not funny to watch him try to eat something halfway down the Grand canyon. Not cool, Chester. Not cool.

Chester sounds like a good name though, huh? Morgan told me not to get “Buck” or “Lightning.” Based on her criteria, I felt safe. Ryan was on Razzo or Razzy … I don’t remember Ryan’s mule's name because I was on a mule riding down the grand canyon. I was a little pre-occupied.

So - we start the trip. It wasn’t scary except for the times that the mule would run around the switchbacks. Oh, and it was also scary to look down. See that picture where Ryan snapped a picture off the side of his mule? See those little green shrubs? Those are trees, people!

At lunchtime, we ate at Plateau Point where you can see the Colorado River below you and the Canyon above. It was so peaceful (except that it was 115 degrees). But it’s a dry heat. As the sweat evaporates, you feel cooled off. Very different from the OK and TX heat I have lived in all my life.

After lunch my mule went a little crazy and ran away from his pack. That made me nervous for the ride back up because Chester was not pleased.

On the way back up I kept looking at the vast canyon above me and thinking “how did I get down here? That is so high up!”

When we arrived back we drove to Scottsdale and checked into the Westin Spa. The next morning Ryan and I were up early to watch the sunrise over the mountains. We were both happy because he could watch people golf and I had a history book with me and Starbucks coffee. Perfect!

We spent the day with a good family friend, Robert. He lives in Phoenix, and took us to the Biltmore for Birthday Brunch and showed us all the mansions in Paradise Valley. We went to Taliesin West, so it was a Frank Lloyd Right day! And we went to the Whole Foods of course.

Tonight we are off to Austin City Limits! Thanks, K-Bone! My sister comes in Saturday to meet little Hollis and have dinner. Busy weekend!

posted by A Spirited Mom @ 1:34 PM