There has been a lot of talk lately about the mule traffic. With the work being done on the South Kaibab, all mules are on the Bright Angel, and they are limited to ten mules a day going to Phantom Ranch with the 20 pack mules a day which support them. When the South Kaibab is complete, they will start work on the Bright Angel, and then what? Xanterra doesn't want to take mules down the SK, because they say it is too steep for novice riders.
The Park doesn't want mules on its new trail because their hooves have much more effect than hikers' boots. Do the math: my foot is about 12 by 4 which makes it 48 square inches. For the sake of easy math, let's say I weigh 200 pounds when carrying a really heavy pack, my foot pressure is about 4 pounds per square inch. On a day hike it is closer to 3 pounds.

If a mule weighs 2000 pounds, and he or she has a 200 pound load, and the mule shoe is about 12 inches by one inch, it has 180 pounds per square inch. Even if we count the whole foot, which is maybe 4X4, it would be 130 pounds per square inch. And the shoes are metal. Mule riders say their mounts have no more effect on the trails than hikers, but that doesn't add up.

Proponents of the mule rides say that the trails were all built for mules, and therefore mules have the right to stay.

Originally trails were developed by game animals, and then by Ancestral Puebloans, who had no stock animals at all, much less mules. It is true that the Native American trails were improved for mules and burros, but by miners, and mining has been outlawed in the Park.

By the 1960's, Phantom Ranch was so rarely visited that Fred Harvey wanted to close it down. The Park Service told them to raise rates in order to keep it open as a tourist attraction. Hikers at the time weren't even allowed to WALK through Phantom. The first time I visited it on the day hike, the caretaker chased me away.

Also by the 1960's all the trails were in poor repair. Trails outside of the corridor were, in fact, mostly gone. The Tanner had no trail at all below the Tapeats. Hikers made their own way down the last shale slopes. The New Hance (Red Canyon) trail wasn't. A trail, that is. Hikers were given a mimeographed sheet of paper describing "way points" along the route, such as "leave the stream bed when the red rock cliff appears", and "climb to the twin towers in the Redwall".

Us hikers showed up in the sixties as part of the "back to the earth" movement, and we found those abandoned trails. We wore them back in with our busy little feet. The Park Historian, Michael Anderson, believed that we hikers saved the off-corridor trails from oblivion. So mules are not the only animals to thank for the existence of the trails.

When I first started hiking, there were no permits required (hikers had to get a permit, but the numbers were not limited) so it was not uncommon to meet a group of 200 Scouts, 300 Sierra Club hikers, or 100 church members.

Campfires were allowed. Very bad idea. Popular sites such as Indian Gardens had NO living plants. Trees, branches, bushes, grass, flowers, were all torn out for campfires. Bark was stripped from the trees as far as a person could reach.

In 1972, permits were limited and fires were banned. The inner canyon is better off for these changes. Perhaps limiting mule traffic is one of those changes forced upon us by increasing visitation and limited public funds.