Day 7 – Supai, AZ to Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Miles driven today: 205 Cumulative miles: 1821 Got up at 5:30am, made a quick oatmeal breakfast, broke down camp, and re-packed our backpacks. We got to the camp entrance right at 7:00am to meet our guide with the horses. There was another local there with three horses plus his own, but the three were all set up as pack animals. We talked to him and he said someone should be by soon. He was waiting for some other group that had arranged to have their bags packed out. So, he waited and we waited. At 7:45am, he left with two empty horses. We waited around another 10 minutes or so and Daniel decided we should just start walking the 2 miles to the village. I talked him into waiting until 8:00am before we left. While we were waiting, some Indian (as in East) tourists came and talked to us as they were supposed to have their bags packed out. We told them what we knew about the local that had been waiting with pack animals but had left. While we were talking to them, just two minutes before 8:00am, a local showed up with two saddle horses and one packhorse in tow. We confirmed that these horses were for us and he proceeded to load our bags. We were told the previous day that, when riding, you were only permitted a small daypack, a camera, and a water bottle. Being that we didn’t have daypacks, we took our cameras and our water and Daniel had his camera bag (in which he stowed his water bottle – I just had a carabineer to hook mine to my waist). (*As we were getting ready to go, another local showed up with pack horses, so I presume the Indian tourists got their bag situation handled.*) 8:05am, an hour later than anticipated, we started the 10-mile ride out of the canyon. The ride took 3 hours for us to return to Hualapai Hilltop – but it was a rough 3 hours! To start, a horse walking is much smoother than a horse trotting, which we seemed to do mostly. Having items loosely strapped to you (such as a camera, a bag, or a water bottle) is both uncomfortable and, at times, painful. With every step, our cameras bounced against our chests, our backs, and our ribs. Daniel finally set his on top of his bag and held it against his chest for most of the ride. I tucked mine under my arm and have the abrasions there to show for it. (I also managed to loosen my lense and was lucky it didn’t just fall off my camera – the only reason I figured it out was because I picked it up to take a picture, saw there was an error, and asked Daniel what it meant) I had to squish my water bottle between me and the saddle horn to minimize it bouncing – consequently, I didn’t drink any on the entire rough ride as it was too difficult to try to unhook it from my waist, drink, and get it wedged in again where it wouldn’t bounce quite so much. The horses were also very competitive. Daniel’s horse wanted to be in the lead the whole time. My horse and the packhorse didn’t necessarily want to be in the lead, they just wanted to be in front of each other. To do this, my horse would take alternate routes at a fast trot and try to beat the packhorse to the cutoff. To prevent this, the packhorse would ram the packs tied to its sides into the side of my horse – with my leg between the two of them. This happened twice really hard and two other times where I was able to miss the brunt of the force. Sounds funny now, but it was a bit scary (particularly when we were on steep cliffs with huge drop-offs) and is still a bit painful as my right knee is stiff and bruised now. Daniel’s horse would follow steering and stopping directions, but would only move faster when the guide commanded. My horse would just shake its head when I pulled on the reigns to get it to slow or stop. I think I successfully got him to stop once on my own (well, sort of – there were two locals running about 10 horses fast through the canyon, so we stopped, and then the horse kept walking backwards in circles. Daniel’s horse, on the other hand, decided not to stop and he ended up in the middle of it all). When I tried to steer, my horse essentially just did what it wanted. I basically just held on and hoped for the best. Daniel had to do the same at one point as well. When we were on the steep switchbacks on the final ascent from the canyon, his horse decide to turn around and go the other way. On a narrow path just wide enough for two horses, for one to turn around in the middle of the three others definitely caused a panic. The packhorse also got turned around and both made it to the corner of the switchback. Our guide got turned around too and was yelling out directions to help Daniel. Daniel said it seemed like the horse was ready to go down the cliff. I held on for dear life as my horse was also getting pushed around in this ordeal. We finally got turned around and Daniel’s horse and the packhorse went up to the lead again. When we got to the next switchback, there was a dead horse lying partially on the path. Our guide said it was his and it had fallen down from the next higher switchback the previous day and that he would come back and burn it. Makes sense why the horses got spooked. (We saw another dead horse much lower in the canyon with two feral dogs that had been feeding off it and our horses swung wide to stay clear. Our guide never said anything about this, so I gather this is a normal part of the lifestyle/ culture for them.) With the pack horse passing my horse again, my horse decided to try to squeeze in next to it – and this meant we were now 3 horses wide on a path barely wide enough for two, with me and my horse on the side with the steep drop off. I was very scared and considered getting off the horse to walk the rest of the way as I kept leaning further and further towards the inside (when I told Daniel this later, he said that he thought the same thing when his horse spooked and he also though ‘Wow- Erin is doing great for her horse walking on the outside edge like that.’). On the upside, we made it alive to Hualapai Hilltop (our guide got a tip for that). The heat wasn’t bad as it was still early. We got to ride horses (which I really enjoy, but I prefer flatter terrain), and it only took us 3 hours (be it a long and sometimes scary 3 hours) to get out of the canyon. Plus, this was Daniel’s first time really riding horses and he would like to try it again (on flatter ground). Downside – bruises, aches and pains, and Daniel doesn’t have near enough ass to provide padding on a hard leather saddle (and we’ll just leave it at that). So, by 11:15am, we were back in our car, back in our flip-flops with 3 fresh Gatorades in hand and back on the road again. The maps/ directions we had from Microsoft Streets and trips (which I used to plan our whole trip) had us heading to Grand Canyon National Park on “local roads.” First, not so helpful when it says “Follow local road for 2.7 miles. Turn left on local road and follow for 6.8 miles” and so on. Second, when we finally saw the road, it was a two-track road (meaning just dirt road under the tires) and we were supposed to drive on this for 40 plus miles. We opted to take the highways instead, which more than doubled the distance to the Grand Canyon, but I think it was worth it to not end up stranded on a dirt road out in the middle of an Indian Reservation. We stopped at a grocery store in a nearby town along the way to grab ice and a few other food items, and then continued on towards the Grand Canyon. We pulled up to the entrance of the park about 3:00pm and were greeted by a friendly Park Ranger. I gave him our Parks Pass and Daniel’s Driver License. “Washougal,” he said reading the ID. “Yep. Washougal, Washington,” I replied. “Right next to Camas,” he said. “That’s where I went to high school. How do you know that?” Turns out he used to be a Vancouver Police Officer and a Clark County Deputy for years before “joining the circus.” I told him it looked like a fun circus to be part of and we continued into the park. Small world. We drove straight to Mather Campground where we had reservations, checked in, and set up camp. We also had to completely unpack the car and re-pack it as things were a bit strewn about from our backpacking excursion. About 5:00pm, we drove to the Market Plaza and hopped on a shuttle to the Visitor Center and Mather Point for a view of the canyon. It is much bigger than I expected. I took a few pictures, though it’s hard to figure out what to take pictures of as it is so big and no one part really captures the grandeur of the canyon. The light was also fading fast as cloud cover had rolled in. Spent a little while taking it all in before heading back to the showers ($1.75 for 5 minutes, but well worth it) and then to camp for dinner. We got the stove and lantern fired up and, almost immediately, moths were flocking to the light. I’m not talking about the tiny, mildly annoying moths we have in the Northwest. These ones have bodies as big around as a Sharpie marker, an inch and a half long, and a wingspan of about 3 inches. It’s like Mothra’s minions were out in force. And when they hit you, they would crawl along on you and keep fluttering their wings. I can deal with a lot, but bugs really freak me out. We tried putting the lantern on the ground, away from our picnic table and food, but we were still getting hit by them and now we couldn’t see when they fell in our food either. We packed up what we could (left the stove since it was still hot), shut off the propane lantern and switched to the battery powered one, and finished eating dinner in the car. Not much else to do at 9:00pm aside from battling moths, so we headed to the tent. I spent some time catching up on my journal using the light o my headlamp and could hear the moths smacking against the tent. So, lights out and time for bed. Wildlife seen: lizards, feral dogs (do they count?), mule deer, moths! Miles hiked: ~.5