Well, I’ve stayed at Phantom ranch, but not take then mule ride. We hiked down, splashed around in Bright Angel Creek stayed over night at phantom ranch and hiked back out the next day.

Phantom Ranch has 2 kinds of accomodations, There are sex-segregated dorm-type cabins for the hikers. As I remember 10 bunks to a cabin. Cabins are air conditioned, have a bathroom with shower and are very clean and well kept. Bed linens were provided, but I think you have to bring your own towel — there was a shower gel dispenser in the shower.

There are also "family cabins" reserved for the folks on the mule trips. These MAY be more rustic in terms of bath/toilet/air conditioning facilities than the dorm cabins. I think the mule trip is a package of "transportation" via mule, lodging and food. Also, I assume the "mule company" takes care of hauling out any trash. Hikers must carry out anything they bring in — you’ll note an absense of trash recepticals.

The entertainment at Phantom ranch is your oddly interesting crew of dinner mates (lots of German hikers when we were there) and park ranger camp-fire talks on geology, ancient cultures, flora & fauna —usual NPS fare. You can also do a bit of (easy) hiking, splash in Bright Angel Creek (cold), look at Colorado River (way too swift and way too cold to even dangle your feet in) for entertainment.

The choices for meals are the dining room and bring your own food and cooking gear for hikers. I think the choices for dinner are steak, beef stew or vegitarian — which is the steak dinner without the steak. There’s a full breakfast and they will provide a box lunch. All meals must be reserved in advance (I think the day before is adeguate). Since everything goes both in by mule and all the garbage is packed out by mule, the food is expensive, though high quality. Again, I think meals are part of the mule trip package.

We did this in mid-summer and I made the reservations at Christmas time. I think you’ll need reservations well in advance for the overnight mule ride. If you’re staying a night on the rim, you’ll want to make reservations for that well in advance, too — it is not unusual for all motels within 250 miles to be full at the height of summer tourist season.

Mid summer it was around 85 degrees F on the rim. It is routinely 20 to 25 degrees warmer at Phantom Ranch.

I was never interested in the mule ride — too much of my miss-spent youth involved horses, but I did enjoy the hike.

Yikes — reservations 23 months in advance?

http://www.grand.can…

There are cancellations — we met hikers who were staying in the cabins reserved for mule riders because of last minute cancellations and no-shows.

Thanks!

Yeah, I was wondering the best way to oraganize the trip. I would think that a night at one of the GC lodges the night before and after would be the way to go.

How early in the morning did you begin your hike?

We left on our hike down about 6:00 AM which was plenty early since you can’t get into Phantom ranch until sometime in the afternoon. It took about 4 hours to hike down to the river (Kaibob trail) — and then maybe 1/2 hour to get up the North side to Phantom Ranch. They roust the hikers out at about 6:00 AM for breakfast — I assume to get them out of the way so the mule riders can eat later. It took about 8 hours to hike back out (Bright Angel trail). We hiked at a leisurely pace with a long lunch break both ways. I believe that route is the opposite of the mule trips. The hike down would be slower on the Bright Angel trail as it’s more crowded — there’s almost nobody on Kaibob as there’s no water so you have to carry all you need.

I don’t think there’s much "organizing" to do since the mule trip seems to only be available as a package. I would definitely stay on the rim the night before since I think the mule trips leave fairly early and any other lodging is a hefty distance away. We stayed on the rim the night before but drove to the Monument Valley area after we hiked out — you’ll need reservations there, too.

Grab a book by Lonely Planet "Grand Canyon" . I was just reading it the other day in an outdoor store. I couldn’t leave there for a while. I know that is on my list, so wanna do that as well.
Also, great magazine: "Adventure" by National Geographic & "Backpacker" by…i don’t know. They have great exciting trips.

quote:
Anyone been there, done that?

I’ve always wanted to take the mule ride down into the canyon and after a few cold ones last night, some friends expressed interest as well.

Any advice?

Thanks!

We did a phenomenal trip to 7 canyons in 12 days along Arizona and Utah in 2003.
Initial plan was to spend 2 days in the Indian village in the west rim if my memory serves right. We wanted to see the waterfall.
Catch 1: Very expensive
and then go down for 1 day in a mule on the eastern or southern rim that everyone keeps referring to.

Looking below the canyon from the helicopter ride and told of the fact that the mules tend to walk on the outer edge of the trail, I gave up.
Catch 2: Have to have the guts and then make sure you kiss your family goodbye in case you don’t come back.

However, before taking the hike, I was told to take a shorter trip on the edge next to the canyon just to see how I feel about the trip down.
Catch 3: 5 minutes on the walk, I realised I will never be writting on Europtrip.com again.

So to keep the story short, we had nothing else to do, but to see other canyons and that is a trip of a lifetime.
Catch 4: Go to the other canyons and every sight has something to cherish about.

Now prior to the story, we were supposed to spend 7 days in Vegas and 4 days in LA. I was visiting vegas after 4 years and in the excitement, I lost a chunk of money in the first 30 mins and my other half gave me an ultimatum that she is taking the next flight back.
I told her Atlantic city was never enough….
Catch 5: Never argue when you have lost some money otherwise you better have a reasonable explanation when the security start coming close to you and other people start staring at you.

Morale: go and have a good time, the natural wonders of the US is something very few can give.

quote:Looking below the canyon from the helicopter ride and told of the fact that the mules tend to walk on the outer edge of the trail, I gave up.

I had the same reaction. I had intentions of doing the mule ride down and changed my mind once I saw the path. lol.