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| Mule Train on Bright Angel Trail |
Click image at left for a photo album.
At 5:15a.m. Kate called Cindy (who hadn't slept wink all night) to say sunrise over the gully was at 5:45a.m. and we had to be there. It turns out that Kate had already knocked on Cindy's door and pushed a cryptic note under the door when she got no answer. So we all showered, packed, checked out of the Quality Inn Tusayan Village and hit the Grand Canyon South Rim a little past sunrise, but still close enough to be awed by the views.
As usual, the view was pretty impressive, so we drove around to a few lookouts. Each view point has a great and/or greater view than the last. And Kate, who also hadn't slept a wink, regaled us with facts she had gleaned from the Grand Canyon paper which she had read all night.
Kate and Cindy have vivid imaginations: At one look out we were standing by a couple they believe are planning an assignation. He seemed to be a bit of a jerk who displayed his knowledge about the Tonto trail or whatever. Kate figures they're both married to other people who are still asleep in the motels. She figures each had gone out to get a pack of cigarettes and the morning paper.
At another view point/lookout we met a young woman who wanted to know who the president before Franklin Roosevelt was (it was Herbert Hoover of "Golly what a Gully" fame). After we all speculated a bit about that; she wanted to know what number President Bush was (George H.W. Bush was No 41 from '89-'93). At that point we decided she'd been up all night on acid to see the sunrise over the gully. She'd probably slept in her car!
At two other lookouts Kate and Reg had to prove that they may be 40 but are not dead yet. They both did death defying climbs past the railings and down into the canyon causing the wussies left on the rim to start counting the insurance dollars. Kate notes that one person out there on the rim also had the wussies. You really shouldn't do that. Foolish folk slip and fall over the rim every year.
After all that excitement we decided it was time for sustenance so we went to the Bright Angel Lodge for breakfast. The lodge is one of five or so six lodges in the park and quite rustic. Kate ordered the Spanish omelette with salsa, Reg ordered two eggs up with whiskey toast (a reference to a Tom Russell song that the waiter didn't get, or care to get), and Cindy ordered an onion and mushroom omelette. Cindy had to trade with Kate because her omelette was on the spicy side. Kate says it was "fuckin' hot!"
After breakfast Kate and Cindy hit the gift shop in the Bright Angel Lodge and were very successful on their first shopping expedition — they found presents for some friends, relatives and the cats. While the girls were shopping Reg saw a guy doing Tai Chi out on the canyon edge. When he told Kate about that later in Chenile she said, "How pretentious!". We all agreed but then people get all spiritual at the gully.
After shopping we joined up with a one hour short guided walking tour along the rim by the El Tovar and Bright Angel lodges. While we were waiting for the tour to start, we saw a pretty young bride and her attendant posing on the balcony of the El Tovar hotel. Everyone was snapping their picture. On the walking tour we learned some interesting facts and saw some more interesting people. The tour guide said 14 people died here last year from various causes. There were 4.5 million visitors and six people fell over the edge (foolish folk like Kate and Reg on death defying climbs to the edge of the rim).
An oddity learned from the guide: the North Rim is 10 miles away as the crow flies and some 1,000 ft higher. The river is 5,000 below the South Rim. But, there's no water on the south rim. They pipe it over from the north side. Getting it down to the river is easy, why is it hard to lift it up from the bottom? Couldn't they just push it up the 5,000 feet with weight of the water falling down the 6,000 ft on the other side? I suppose an engineer can help explain that.
Following the tour, Kate and Cindy had hot feet and aching legs and all three of us were down a few ounces if not a full quart. We needed an outdoor restaurant to cool down and normalize. We found a nice restaurant overlooking the canyon on the porch of the El Tovar. Reg had a Grand Canyon beer from a local microbrewery with Fred Harvey's insignia on it (Fred Harvey owns all the lodges, restaurants etc. in the gully and many other parks we visited), Kate had a bloody Mary that tasted like a Caesar, and Cindy had a screwdriver that seemed to be just that. Plans are made to go on an hour hike down into the canyon a bit on the nearby Bright Angel Trail, to have lunch, to take in the IMAX show about the canyon and then to hit the road.
We decided that in order to deserve lunch at the four-star El Tovar restaurant we had to go on a trek, if only in a small way, down into the canyon (half mile down, seems like two miles back up!). So off we went on the nearby Bright Angel Trail. It was picturesque but scary sometimes; the edge of the path often went straight down. On the way down we passed a mule train. There's one guy on a mule followed by five or six pack animals. He would be bringing up garbage and other stuff from the bottom. Presumably right at the bottom — it's 9 miles down to the Phantom Ranch on the Colorado River. There's also a campground half way down at the Indian Garden, they might have been packing up stuff from there. The mules were sweating and by the time we came back up so were we!
We also passed some people told us to never ride a mule down. They had seen one slip and fall although not all the way down I guess. On the other hand the guide had told us previously that there had never been any fatalities of anyone riding on a mule. After marching that little way down Reg has decided that the only way he'd ever go down and back is on a mule — it's far too rugged for the likes of us
After the hike, 2:00 p.m. — we are currently treating ourselves to some wonderful Chardonnay at the El Tovar dining room. Everyone keeps smacking their lips and saying "This is good wine! I think I could stay here a while!" The wine was a Seghesio 1990 Chardonnay with 60% Sonoma county, 40% Mendocino county, from the Seghesio Winery in Healdsburg California. We should try to find it again.We all ordered basil linguine for lunch and hope it's good. It was good. When it was served the waiter came back and told us that he was going to have the same for lunch as well since it smells so good.
We went to the IMAX cinema at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center in Tusayan Village to see a big screen version of things. The show had some history including a reenactment of the Powell's 1869 exploration of the river. And there were lots of death defying airplane trips through the canyon. The river, if you can get down there, is really beautiful. We were impressed.
When we left the IMAX we stopped at a grocery store to stock up and then at a gas station to fill up before setting up for Page and Lake Powell to the east. We went into a tourist store to buy a soft drink and the store people started raving about Reg's "Bart Sanchez" T-shirt as did many people at the Grand Canyon. Nothing would do but Kate had to read the label word for word so that the store keepers could try to order some for their stock. It turns out that although our friend Scott had bought the shirt in Mexico it was actually made in California.
We drove east out of the Grand Canyon with stops at the Desert View Watch Tower at the far end of the park and a view of the Little Colorado just outside the park. As soon as you're out of the Grand Canyon you start to see lots of roadside stands with Indians (Navajos at first) selling crafts, silver, pottery and rugs. They seem to have continuous sales and advertise in the "Burma Shave" tradition with several signs along the way enticing you to the next road side sale/stop.
After a long and sometimes silly ride we arrived at around 9:00 at the town of Page on Lake Powell some 150 miles from Grand Canyon South Rim. We had no problem finding a room at the Inn at Lake Powell although Kate is worried that we are going to need reservations for some of these places we have in our plans. Most of this area is Indian reservations with no amenities. In fact on the way today Kate had to pee among the sage brush and tumbleweed!
A bit of geography: the Grand Canyon, and the Colorado River, is bracketed by Lake Mead (formed by the Hoover dam, 1931) at the one end near Las Vegas, NV and Lake Powell (formed by the Glen Canyon dam, 1956) at the other end near Page, AZ.
These notes, originally composed by Kate, Cindy and Reg at the time of the trip, were transcribed '21/07/06 with the help of Google voice recognition.
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