I hiked the Kaibob and Bright Angel Trail with my dad and brothers and assorted uncles way back when. Down one, up the other.
Spent the night in sleeping bags at the bottom. Wonderful trip.
We passed the donkeys (burros ?) both ways, but I felt better trusting my own feet and my own balance, not the donkey’s.
They use mules because mules are sure-footed and (I’ve been told) smarter than horses.
They were mules. I lived there in 1954-5. My parents were teachers. I was in 2nd grade and loved it.
I’ve always loved Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite, too. Brilliant.
We were stationed at Clark AFB in the Philippines when my dad bought a record that had the Grand Canyon Suite on one side and Johnny Cash narrating a pack trip down the Bright Angel Trail on the other.
I vividly remember listening to the suite for the first time and, at the precise moment in the “On The Trail” movement to which you refer, my dad shouted: “... and the donkey fell off the cliff!”
When my dad was reassigned to Warner-Robbins AFB in Georgia, we made the cross-country trek by car and our route took us by the Grand Canyon. When we arrived there, I refused to get out of the car, terrified that I would surely fall into the chasm if I got anywhere near the edge.