Oooooh. my aaa...mule!

Oooooooooh …. my aaa – Mule!My behind is so sore it feels quite alien!

We moved to this park earlier this morning after sleeping in quite nicely till 9am – totally unheard of while on the road, but so good for a change. And then off we tootled to the Canyon to meet our mules.

I got a horse, Frank got a mule. It still felt unreal and I did not want to think about those steep, narrow paths with the loose sand, but we got up on these rather tame looking animals, wiggled our butts around the saddle and realized that it was not going to feel good after an hour – let alone nearly four hours!

And the first part of the ride was, of course, almost vertically down. Each mule and horse felt the need to empty itself within the first quarter mile which at least cut the dust down, but boy did it smell as if anything would grow there! As they said, the animals preferred the very, very outside of the path which got a good few of us catching our breath many times and one lady owned up to even closing her eyes! I just took photos of the faraway view and let be what would be……yes, with a thumping heart and sweaty palms at times.

This is the most awesome place to see. The colors and the formations are simply incredible. The orange is mixed in with white hoodoos, which are tall pinnacle like structures formed by the wind and rain. Many places it looked like the most magestic cathedral, but then you went around a bend in the path and there was another – just as awesome. Much of the scenery here starts with white at the very tips, blending down into that awesome orange and then a mix of both as it all smooths out into a steep sandy base.

Many of the hoodoos took on faces of cartoon characters, one of ET, Mrs Doubtfire and another of the Queen of England. Little bluebirds seemed to follow us all along the way, happily chirping and really getting excited if one of the mules pooped. There were tiny, incredibly quick moving chipmunks running wildly away with their tails in a straight line towards the sun – very funny!

Many of the trees had been struck by lightening as the orange in the ground is from an ‘overdose’of iron in the ground, making the canyon the second most lightening struck place in the US – right behind Florida. So, many of the trees are these enormous skeletons, reaching way up into the sky with little arms all down their length reaching out to the tree next to it. They make for awesome props for photos and many were used as such.

Smaller bushes or tree-lets dot the sides of the canyon walls, often with their roots on the outside and I wonder how they survive. It looks as if they are literally hanging on with their fingernails as the roots snake a goodly way away from them, either in search of water of a firmer grip.

Franks mule made the most interesting noises – well, I thought it was the mule and he said it was…….. Frank?? It seemed to be grinding its teeth at the best of times, snorting and huffing and puffing, amongst many other not so polite sounds, so much so that we both burst out laughing many times. His also kept trying to pass me, which was not allowed, but he did not seem to care too much about that at all. My horse kept on pushing the mule in front of me, sandwiching me firmly many times between the teeth of one mule and the *ss of another. Yes, I got a horse and others got mules. There were only three horses in the group. Anyway, my horse, Redman, wanted to go faster up the hills and so he would bite the mule in front of me which gave it a bit of a head start, but just for a little while. When we stopped, there was much ear-flicking going on between these three animals and they vied for position all the way, which made it really interesting on the steeper downhill slopes.

Once or twice Redman broke into a trot and I was interested to see that I remembered how to do that without beating my rear end blue, so right at the end on a good and level place, I tried to hold him back to make some place that we could trot some more – but no – he smelled rest and water and there was no holding him back.

Within 5 minutes of getting in the saddle, one realizes that you are stuck for a goodly long while, maybe that’s why they get you up there and leave pretty smartly after that. And then after trying to apply the breaks by pushing on the stirrups with no effect at all other than cramping up your legs, I gave in and just let Redman do his thing. It seemed that the few times I tried to bring him in from the very edge, that he got an attitude and got even closer. So he won and I let him have his head unless he was trying to pass his buddy in front.

So now I am looking at the 800 or so photos that we took and wondering just how to describe it any better. I cannot. I will load photos as soon as we get an internet connection of any value at all and you can see for yourself.

We are both very happy that we did this mule ride and both VERY happy that we did not do the two day mule ride in The Grand Canyon! I faced my fears today and am still alive. Wonderfully sore and tired and alive and with pictures to prove that I did it! What more can one ask? Relief by tomorrow!

Its only 8pm, but Frank is in bed already and I am definitely going to creak my way there now too. What a wonderful day!

Love and light
Annie