This is the heart of Grand Canyon.
It’s like an onion and the layers are coming off
as you are hiking into the canyon
By the time you get to Phantom, I'm just joyful.
You really get how special life is
and sacred this canyon is.
Phantom Ranch is located at the bottom
of Grand Canyon along the Colorado River.
It’s the trail junction where the three main
corridor trails - we call them - meet.
The South Kaibab, the Bright Angel,
and the North Kaibab trails.
Millions of people visit the rims every year,
but only about one percent of our visitors
stay overnight here at Phantom Ranch.
Typically, people when they come to West,
perhaps want to climb to the top of a mountain.
Well here at Grand Canyon it’s the reverse,
they want to reach the bottom.
In fact, I like to tell people when they ask about
my career, and my journey down here,
that I have made my way down the ladder
to arrive at Phantom Ranch.
and in a way it’s the same thing with our
visitors. For them to come to the bottom is the
experience that they are looking for.
It is water - more than anything else - that has
drawn people to this specific location for the
last thousand or twelve hundred years or so.
The Fred Harvey Company and Mary Colter
designed the cabins - Phantom Ranch in 1922.
Colter designed her cabins to blend in.
She wanted this place to speak for itself.
I think that Phantom is her crown jewel
at the Grand Canyon
and maybe even in the Southwest.
Mary Jane Colter is such a big part
of Phantom Ranch.
You could say she is on the staff.
Colter built these cabins and started to draw
a new kind of audience
into the bottom of Grand Canyon.
The wealthiest of the tourists:
authors, artists, oil and steel magnates.
People that could afford a trip to travel by train
from the East Coast, then to ride the mules to the
bottom of Grand Canyon and stay
for multiple weeks on end down here.
And in the 1930’s President Franklin Roosevelt
formed what is called
the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Camp 818 worked here at Phantom Ranch,
improving trails and campgrounds
and providing an experience for hikers
that we still have today.
Hikers, backpackers, mule riders experience
this place not a whole lot different than
some of our earliest tour operators did.
To arrive at Phantom Ranch there are really only
three ways down here.
On their own two feet.
Ride one of the rafts.
People can ride a mule down
so ride on someone else’s feet instead.
And the mule ride is no easier than the hike.
Mule riders when they arrive here are just
as tired and sore and the hikers are.
Badley: Hi folks, welcome to Phantom Ranch!
Mules have always been a tradition at Phantom
and we could not exist without them.
Almost everything that comes in and out of
Phantom, comes in by mule, goes out by mule.
Our postcards are stamped with a unique
‘mailed by mule from the bottom
of the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch’ sticker.
Yeah, it’s never gotten old. The art of
postcard writing is alive and well down here.
Many people are drawn to Phantom Ranch
because of the comforts that are down here.
This is a great place for an
introductory backpacking experience.
This isn’t as rustic as it once was
but for many people today
it is the first time they have ever had
a backpacking or backcountry experience.
So often here at Grand Canyon
hikers have the tendency to overestimate
their abilities and underestimate Grand Canyon.
We cannot stress enough
the idea of hiking smart in the summer.
Hike smart means start early on your hike
or start late. Avoid the heat of the day.
Take advantage of water when you find it.
And you will have a much nicer hike.
It will treat you the way you treat it.
If you treat the canyon with respect
the canyon will respect you right back.
If you disrespect it, it will kick you right in the butt.
The canyon doesn't like to be harmed
I mean, its alive.
It’s a breathing organism.
Every day at the ranch it's a new experience
it’s a new adventure - for the people that come
and for us the ranchers.
We take care of the people that come here
and the people that come here
are very special people.
Phantom Ranch is so special to me because
of the people that come down here:
the backpackers, the mule riders,
the staff that works down here.
There’s definitely a connection with people
in the canyon.
A lot of walls just immediately go down.
At Phantom, it really doesn't get better than this
and this is really, really good.
While we're having this experience
at Phantom Ranch,
we forget about what goes on everywhere else.
We don’t have cell phones to connect us
or the Internet.
What we have to connect us though, is the past.
All those people that came before us,
we’re sort of in a way following in their
footsteps and continuing their legacy too.
We want the next people who come down here
to have an enjoyable experience
just like we're having right now.