Mule Trains

Trip Start Jul 02, 2007

Trip End Jul 06, 2007

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Flag of United States Havasupai, Arizona
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

    While we may have embarked on this, our first backpacking expedition, underprepared, we did spend many hours researching the trip prior to our departure, which is how we came across information about the danger of flash floods. The weather, it seemed, could change in a second, with monsoons causing the water to rise and flood the canyon, sometimes without a cloud in the sky where you are.
     So our hearts skipped a few beats when, as we were hiking through the canyon, we began to hear a distant rumble. Look at the sky. Nothing. Could it be? Should we move to high ground? As we began to step to the side, the rumble more clearly became clicks, as in, the clicks of hooves on rocks. We had encountered our first mule train. At one point on our hike in, we were pulling over for the mules, who have the right-of-way, about every 15 minutes.
     On our journey in, we also paused to take a photo beneath a giant rock that could have flattened us instantly if the earth had decided to sneeze, or even hiccup, in that moment.

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