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8 Facts About the Grand Canyon Mules

November 18, 2015

Mules have been hauling people and cargo up and down the Grand Canyon for more than a century. Here are some fun facts about these industrious pack animals…(This article was originally published in Uncle John’s Weird Weird World EPIC.)

Grand Canyon Mules

  • Mule trips into the Grand Canyon are so popular that reservations are taken as many as 23 months in advance—and trips always sell out.
  • For day-trippers, it takes about 2-1/2 hours to get down the 10-mile Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point, a good stopping point along the canyon route. But if you want to go all the way to the canyon floor, it will take a full day.
  • President Teddy Roosevelt took a mule ride down when he visited in 1903. He was one of the first public figures to do so.
  • Mule rides aren’t cheap. A one-day ride down and back is about $140—but it includes a boxed lunch!
  • The first person to offer mule rides was Captain John Hance, the first white settler in the Grand Canyon. He began his business in 1887. Today, private companies are licensed to offer the rides.
  • The mules have a nearly perfect 100-year safety record— an impressive feat considering the steep switchbacks and crumbling shale on the trails.
  • To ride to the bottom of the canyon on a mule, you must weigh less than 200 pounds, be taller than 4 feet 7 inches, not be pregnant, and speak English well enough to understand your wrangler’s commands.
  • Mules are not just for fun in the Grand Canyon. Five days a week, the U.S. Postal Service uses mule trains to deliver mail to Supai, Arizona, in the Havasupai Indian Reservation, located at the bottom of the canyon. Mules carry all forms of mail, including letters, food, and even mattresses. They haul an average of one ton of cargo down the canyon each day.

EPIC