Inside Arizona’s Phantom Ranch, Where Canyon-Bottom Cabins Await Travelers Reached Only By Mule, Foot, Or Raft

Mail still arrives by mule at one tiny cluster of stone cabins in Arizona. No delivery truck could make the trip, because no road goes there at all. The cabins sit at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, about a vertical mile below the rim. Your only ways in are your own two feet, a sure-footed mule, or a raft on the Colorado River. I love that the reward for all that effort is so simple. You get a bunk, a cold-water sink, a family-style dinner, and a cool creek running past the door. People enter bo