Okay, so the mule affectionados say it is classically unfair that they are now limited to 10 Phantom mules a day.

Try getting a permit to hike the Corridor during rim-to-rim season. Or anywhere in the Canyon during Spring Break or Thanksgiving. Or during most of the spring and fall.

Try getting a permit for a private river trip. Even with the lottery system, it still takes most people ten years to be drawn.

I am constantly (well, not constantly but often enough) asked if visitors are allow to mountain bike, hang-glide, or BASE jump.

Let's say the Park Service sold the Grand Canyon to private concerns, and there would be unlimited mule rides, backpacking, and river running, not to mention downhill mountain biking (with an uphill shuttle provided) BASE jumping, Xtreme sports events -- everyone could visit anywhere and do anything. The Canyon would become a place that none of us would wish to visit.

And so far as not being able to ride a mule, over Martin Luther King weekend this year -- a three day weekend AND a fee free weekend, three persons rode down to the Ranch on Wednesday. Two rode down on Friday. No one on Saturday. No one on Sunday. So a rider might not be able to get a reservation for spring or fall, but then, neither can most hikers. Bundle up and go in the winter.