Tin-Man, Buckshot & Norman

We arrived at the Grand Canyon Sunday evening. After making it through the Park Entrance we stopped at the Desert View watchtower to take in the view and get some dinner.

Once we got to our campsite and finished setting up camp, we headed over to the Lodge to charge phones, camera batteries, and the laptop, edit photos, and to post the last blog entry. Which became our nightly ritual. I'm sure we were quite the sight; walking in with a power strip cord, computer, our cell phones and several camera chargers and batteries.

Monday morning, day four, we set out semi early to hike along some trails around the South Rim. There were several scenic overlooks where we were able to film and take pictures on the edge. One wife cautioned her husband not to get too close, cause he might get blown off. We hiked along the Rim Trail for roughly two miles and took the shuttle bus back to camp. Afterwards, we finalized plans for the rest of our time there and grilled some chicken for lunch. The evenings and mornings have been pretty chilly as there has been some pretty serious wind.   

Tuesday started before the sun was up, as we endeavored to hike down to the inner canyon to Plateau's Point. It's a 12.2 mile hike round trip. After taking a selfie at the trailhead we started our decent into the canyon. Along the way we were passed by a train of pack mules carrying supplies down to Phantom Ranch, the campground across the river at the bottom of the canyon. The Grand Canyon is the only place that still utilizes mules to deliver US mail.

After taking a quick break at the first rest house 1.5 miles down, we continued our hike. Several switchbacks later, we finally made it to the rest house 3 miles down. Stopped for a short break and continued on our way. We met a guy on the trail from Boerne, TX who is traveling around the U.S. also. He had ran a half marathon two days prior in NM and was headed to Yosemite that night. There's a possibility we might see him again at Mount Rushmore. Once we reached Plateau's Point, 3,060 ft from the top, we took in the amazing beauty and spectacular views.

John got his quad copter out to get some aerial footage of the inner canyon and the river below, it was pretty difficult to fly with the very strong winds blowing through the canyon. The view from here makes you realize just how deep the canyon really is. From the overlook on the Plateau we spotted a couple of rafts going down the rapids. Most likely it was a training run, since the white water rafting doesn't open until later in the summer.

On the way back up we took a break at the Indian Gardens, a campground and resting place about 4.6 miles from the top. We ate lunch there and stuck our feet in the creek. By this time it had warmed up quite a bit, it was just over 90 degrees. 

We started our trek back up with our hats and shirt soaked, although it didn't take them long to dry. It definitely was a lot different than coming down. It seemed like we were getting closer to the top, but after hiking around so many switchbacks you begin to wonder if you are ever going to reach the top. The last mile and a half was the hardest, every time you thought you had to be getting near the top, you'd look up and see people much further along and a lot higher up in a spot you didn't remember having come through. 

Eventually we made it back to the top around 5 pm. It was such a feeling of relief and accomplishment as we finished those last few feet. Even though it was a challenging hike, we enjoyed it!  We were surprised that on the hike we heard more Japanese, French, Korean, and what we think was Ukrainian than we did English

If you were wondering about the title of this post - read on for the explanation. Wednesday morning we got up early, broke camp, and repacked the car. Then we caught the shuttle bus to the "Base Camp" for our mule ride. After a brief introduction we were each assigned a mule. Our mules names were Tin-Man, Buckshot, and Norman. We climbed into the saddle, and waited in the corral for our guide, Hoop, to start us on the trail along the souther rim of the canyon. 

With roughly an hour of riding behind us and a few stops to view the canyon we reached the turnaround point. Returning along the same route gave us some amazing views of the canyon that most tourists don't see, as the mule trail is not on most maps. Once we reached the corral again we led our mules to the stock rail and dismounted, realizing that our legs were a little stiff from sitting in the saddle for 2 hours. Overall it was a great trip.


Here are some extra photos from the Grand Canyon.