Two senior citizens from Maine aren’t the most authentic looking cowpokes, but on this morning along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, they did the best they could — and had a great time.
It was a three-hour ride along the rim and though we were somewhat disappointed we did not venture into the canyon — like we did in Bryce Canyon — three hours in the saddle was all we could handle.
We always thought mules were a lot smaller, but the ones we rode were part mule and part quarter horse. Carol rode Dusty and I was on Twinky. Twinky liked to edge out and look into the canyon, but our trail leader told us mules are a lot smarter than horses and would never consider taking the big leap.
A few more images from our ride and the canyon beside us:
After our ride, we got much-needed showers and had a late lunch/early dinner in the El Tovar Hotel, the Grand Canyon’s premier lodge. Thank you to Steve and Judith Hill for recommending for us to have a meal there — like they enjoyed in 2019. And we did!
Being in the Southwest, Carol ordered the Traditional Navajo Taco.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the South Rim, searching for California condors. We spoke with a park ranger who told us it’s difficult to tell the difference between a condor and a turkey vulture. They both have white horizontal patterns under their wings and they both glide on the thermals above the canyon and rarely flap their wings. We think what we mostly saw today were vultures.
Tomorrow we head south to Flagstaff and then it’s on to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta.
T&C Southwest Adventure 2021 