Photo Of The Day: Ride ‘em Cowboy
It was early in the morning, while heading to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, that I encountered the Bright Angel Trail mule riders readying themselves for the ride down the trail to the canyon floor.
Several mule wranglers (I guess they shouldn’t be called ‘cowboys’, and I don’t think they’d appreciate being called ‘muleboys’), stood around the corral while the tour leader gave the assembled riders advice about the journey into the canyon, warning them of the perils of dehydration, carelessness and inattention, and not obeying the instructions of the mule train leaders in whose care they were being entrusted.
The trail was originally built by the Havasupai (Havasu ‘Baaja) Native American tribe for access to the perennial water source of present day Garden Creek. The Havasu settled seasonally in this area, now known as Indian Garden.
Ralph Cameron, who would later become a United States Senator, settled on the canyon rim in 1890 and began improving the old Havasupai trail, extending it all the way to the Colorado River. Although it was referred to as Cameron’s Trail in its early years, Cameron officially named it the Bright Angel Trail, and began charging a $1 toll to access it. The trail eventually fell under the management of the National Park Service in 1928, which subsequently dropped the $1 toll.
As the mule riders prepared to set off, I wished I was making the trek with them, but given the Bright Angel Trail mule ride is booked out up to a year in advance, I consoled myself by trying to capture one or two unique moments on camera.
Call me fetishistic, but I was quite taken with the outfits the wranglers were wearing, and took a series of close-up images of boots and spurs and leggings, as can be seen in the photograph illustrating this entry. I then headed to the South Rim and hiked down the Bright Angel Trail a mile or so as the sun began to rise and long golden rays began transforming the face of Grand Canyon into the wonder of the world it truly is.
