Grand Canyon, Second Full Day

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On my second full day at Grand Canyon, I went on the day-long mule ride. There are actually two different rides you can opt for. Both start from the Bright Angel Lodge and take the Bright Angel trail. The full day ride goes down into the canyon to the Colorado River overlook, and the other ride continues on down to Phantom Ranch for an overnight stay and returns the next day.

The full day ride takes about 2 and a half hours to get to your destination where you enjoy a boxed lunch and an unbelievable view of the canyon and river, then takes about 3 hours to return. On my ride, there were all ages. The youngest was about 12 and I think the oldest was myself (boy, that's difficult to say). I highly recommend taking one of the mule trips. The full day ride was enough for me. You need to be in fairly good physical condition. The trip is very hot and somewhat strenuous. You also must be willing to take command of the mules (if you know what I mean.) Book your trip well in advance as they do fill up early. The ride bosses are very entertaining and really make you feel at ease. You are split up into packs of 8 that leave about 5-10 minutes apart. I was lucky and went out in the first bunch, which meant I returned first. When you return, you discover that your legs and especially your rear are very sore. But you can get over that.....the ride is really great!

After the ride, I took the bus to the western destinations in the park since I had done the eastern stops on my first full day. The very end stop on the western line-up is Hermits Rest. There is a small snack bar there along with a must-see fireplace in the Center. But the place to watch the sunset on the western route is at Hopi Point. Both the outbound bus and the return bus will stop there and they add extra buses to pick up the crowds after sunset. Take your camera. As you can see in my photos, the sunsets are spectacular. All three days that I was in the park, it rained in the afternoon and early evenings. The rains come and go pretty quick, so they are not that much of a nuisance and as you can see in the photo, the rains and storms can bring beautiful photo ops.

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