Blunder Bus

On my second full day (June 4) at the Grand Canyon I decided to do a bit of sightseeing. While I’ve tended to go there for the hiking, that has meant that it’s been easy for me to miss many of the other fascination things that go on there.

So I did some of their special programs, rode the buses, and caught some new views.

You may recall that last year I had a bit of trouble riding the Grand Canyon Shuttle Buses. See The Grand Canyon: Bus-ted. That was resolved when I was granted a religious exemption from the bus company’s double-secret-probation rule requiring footwear.

Before heading out there this time, I sent an email to the Grand Canyon’s Concessions Program Analyst in charge of the Bus Company letting her know when I was going to be there.

It would be interesting to test how just how that worked as the day progressed.

Actually, I’d already seen some of that when I arrived late on June 2. I took the buses to and from the Visitor Center and got a taste of how it worked. But using the buses all day would give me a chance to try to (informally) collect some statistics of how they treated me and to get a feel for how they were managing it from their end.

On June 2, what I did was drive from my campsite (which was waaaaay back in the Mather Campground near the South Entrance Road) to the Shrine of the Ages. Here’s the map that will orient you.

Grand Canyon Bus Routes

[Click on it for the larger, more-readable version.]

The Shrine of the Ages was a good location that minimized my driving (which, in the Grand Canyon, is a good thing—that’s why they have the buses) and had a parking lot that didn’t fill up like the main lots (like at the Visitor Center).

Just as I got out of my car a bus pulled up, so I had to run right towards its front to catch it. Of course, that gave the bus driver a good look at me (and my bare feet). I hopped on and immediately he was pissed—he didn’t even like me standing on “his” bus in my bare feet. I told him there was no rule (and there is no published rule anywhere), which he contradicted. So I told him to call his dispatcher and that I had a religious exemption. He did so with a really disgusted look on his face and tone in his voice and was told that I was “OK”. I thanked him as cheerily and politely as I could as I finished boarding.

On the way back, boarding at the Visitor Center, I was standing in line when a little girl asked her mother where my shoes were. The mother responded by telling her daughter that a bear had stolen my shoes! Ha! The little girl said, “Really?” and I replied, “No, your mother is just making a joke. But I then told the mother that I was really bearfoot. She laughed back.

I had no trouble boarding the bus there because, as I discovered, the Bus Company has a policy of making its drivers inspect their buses at major stops (which is what the Visitor’s Center is). As we stood in line, he walked up and down the bus. Then he let us all on. And when I stepped onto the bus he was busy filling out the paperwork in regards to the inspection.

This is good, but also silly. It is good that the Bus Company regularly (and frequently) inspects the buses. That’s good management (and it also means that it reduces accidents of all kinds). They are being silly though, objecting to my bare feet from a liability standpoint, because from a tort law point of view, it removes their liability related to a fear of bare feet getting injured on their buses! Regular inspections fulfill their duty of care and mean that those injured cannot win lawsuits. It’s also silly because filling out the paperwork meant that the driver missed the violation of their “rule”. It was kind of like the error of shooting themselves in the foot with a blunderbuss.

OK, back to June 4.

So, for my full day of bus-riding, the first thing I wanted to do was check out one of the programs that is put on every morning: The Fossil Discovery Walk.

Fossil Discovery Walk

This started at the Bright Angel Trailhead (a place I’d usually seen as a “trailfoot” when I’d hiked up from the bottom of the Canyon) and stayed along the rim. Again, I parked at the Shrine to catch the bus, this time to the Bright Angel Trailhead. As I got on the bus, the driver looked down at my feet and just let me board. Another blunder—the Bus Company doesn’t even consistently instruct their drivers.

The Fossil Walk itself was only so-so (for me). It was really geared more for families with children (which is just fine). But I did learn a bit. It headed west a bit and by the time the program ended, I was close enough to the Trailview Overlook that I just kept walking along the Rim Trail to visit the Overlook and pick up a Hermit Road bus there.

Here’s a map of the Hermit Road bus route.

Hermit Road Bus Route

[Again, click for a larger, more readable version.]

Hermit Road is closed to regular traffic. Only the buses (with a few exceptions) are allowed to use it.

Along the Rim Trail towards Trailview Overlook one gets really nice views of the top of the Bright Angel Trail. (It’s almost like it is a “Trailview” “Overlook”!) Here’s a nice shot of the upper tunnel along the trail.

The Upper Tunnel

[With this picture, and almost all of the pictures, click for larger, more impressive versions.]

But while I was there, there was something odd going on. There was something going on at the tunnel.

Tunnel Action

Those aren’t people. Those are mules.

And those mules weren’t part of a train heading down to the bottom of the canyon.

Tunnel U-Turn

As you can see, they were passing through the tunnel, turning around, and then heading back up. What the heck?

At the time I speculated that maybe this was some sort of training? But that wasn’t it. Later in the day (after returning from riding the Hermit Road buses), the mules were corralled, so I asked some of the mule drivers what they were doing.

The Bright Angel Mule Corral

It was trail repairs. They were using the mules to transport dirt to build up the portion of the trail above the tunnel. (Unsurprisingly, this area gets a lot of usage.) Cool.

From the Trailhead Overlook, one can look down the trail and see where the 1½-mile Resthouse it located. There it is.

1½-mile Resthouse

That’s a nice spot to aim for if you want to hike down into the Canyon a bit. It has water (usually) so you can water up and then turn around and come back up.

At the Trailhead Overlook I also got to look at something I really hadn’t appreciated before (but picked up on during the Fossil Discovery Walk). The Bright Angel Trail (and Indian Gardens) sits on a geological fault. That’s why there can even be a trail there: the fault helps set off the erosion that makes the gap the trail can go into. In this picture you can see the offset.

The Bright Angel Fault

You can see the lines of sandstone on the left. But when you try to match them on the right, you see that they are much higher there. That’s the vertical offset from the fault.

The other cool thing at the Trailhead Overlook was this guy.

Snake!

That is a gopher snake. And for good measure, here are a few more pictures of him.

Gopher Snake

It was funny to see people’s reactions. Many were concerned he might be a rattlesnake. (No, the head’s all wrong, and when we could see his tail, no rattle.) Some were afraid anyways. And others loved looking at him (me!).

Still a Gopher Snake

From the Trailhead Overlook, as I boarded the bus to head all the way west to Hermit’s Rest, the bus driver didn’t even look down as I got on.

Hermit’s Rest was cool. I bought a T-shirt and a book and lunch (barefoot, of course—that wasn’t all that impressive: it was an outdoor cafe). And there was a view.

Boarding the bus at Hermit’s Rest to head back east was a different matter, though.

As once before, the bus driver stopped me immediately and again she hated the idea of my even standing on the bus at the doorway. This time, instead of mentioning my exemption, I just asked her to call dispatch. (This gave me a chance to explore just how that was set up.)

Dispatch asked her my name!

So, they were set up to provide a religious exemption to one particular person (that is not the way religious exemptions are supposed to work). Once they had my name, though, I was given the OK again and finished boarding. The bus driver did not look happy.

On my eastbound trip, I got off at Powell Point (named after John Wesley Powell, who led the first two expeditions through the Grand Canyon). Here I am at the memorial there.

At Powell Point

Note: I have no idea why I’m standing like that.

Getting back on the bus at Powell Point, the driver looked directly at my bare feet and said nothing.

From there we went to the Village Route Transfer point (end of the line for the Red Hermit Road route and where you pick up the Blue Village Route). Getting back on there, the driver was busy with other things and didn’t even see me board. I took that bus all the way to the visitor’s Center where I did another transfer to the Orange Route so I could visit the Yavapai Point Geology Museum.

Again, the driver did an inspection (good practice; removes any excuse for banning bare feet) but this time the driver noticed me as I got on and said I had to have shoes. I told him to call dispatch. He called and got the OK.

By the way, all of the buses I was on had a big sign on the wall telling us the rules (they were also above the driver’s head but much less noticeably). Here’s the sign.

The Official Posted Bus Rules

Can you spot the barefoot rule? Neither can I. As I said before, it’s a double-secret-probation kind of rule. I don’t see why the Federal Government lets them get away with it. It’s something that just gets sprung on the unwary (and I know a few other barefooters who got trapped by it). None of the Grand Canyon buildings have ever had a problem with my entering them in my bare feet. Why do they let one of their contractors act in such a fashion? (Side note: when I went into the Kolb Studio building, the person there did warn me that some glass had recently been broken, that she had vacuumed it up, and that I should still be careful. That’s nice. That’s great. That’s not being an ignorant controlling asshole.)

The Yavapai Geology Museum is always a cool place to visit (and there was a geology program put on by a really knowledgeable geologist Ranger, Russell Rosenberg, that I thoroughly enjoyed). Here’s one of their displays: a contoured model of the Grand Canyon.

Contour Model

Obviously it doesn’t have great detail, but I was able to trace out my Tanner Trail hike of the previous day. (It was better in person.)

There was also a great view (duh!).

Across the Canyon

While my first thought was that that was Plateau Point, this is
a bit farther east. In the distance (middle) you can see Phantom Ranch.
That other distant green spot on the right is where the South Kaibab
trail crosses the Colorado River over the Black Bridge. And in the
foreground right (disappearing behind that huge rock) you can see
a bit of the Tonto Trail.

Here’s the perspective on a topo map.

Topo Map of the View

Here’s a close up of the Phantom Ranch portion of the picture.

Phantom Ranch from Yavapai Point

And here’s the Black Bridge portion.

Black Bridge from Yavapai Point

You can also see the beach where the river rafts pull in to visit Phantom Ranch.

Over my entire time at the Grand Canyon I rode the buses 13 times. Here’s what I found out.

Four times I was stopped and the driver had to call the dispatcher. Six times the driver didn’t even notice that I was barefoot (two of those times it was because they were doing inspection paperwork). Three times the driver clearly looked at my feet and didn’t care.

I learned that the Bus Company has their drivers do regular inspections. They do a really good job of making sure their buses are safe. (So you’d think they wouldn’t be so scared of a barefoot injury. But we really know that it’s really just ignorant prejudice.) I also managed to ride their buses 13 times without injuring my feet in any way. Wow! Who’ve thunk it.

I also find myself really annoyed with how they are handling religious exemptions to their double-secret-probation rule.

Suppose they had a double-secret-probation rule against wearing a crucifix, with the faux safety excuse that the chain could get caught on something or that the cross could be used as a weapon to poke somebody’s eye out. And suppose the only way to get an exemption was via notifying them in advance and having them take down your name.

Or suppose they had a double-secret-probation rule against Muslim women wearing a hijab, with the faux safety excuse that it could get hung up and twisted around on the straphanger poles, or caught in the doors. And suppose the only way to get an exemption was by notifying them in advance. Suppose the drivers had no way of making the exemption themselves when told it was a religious practice and always had to call a dispatcher.

Wouldn’t that be stupid? Wouldn’t that violate religious rights? so why is there current method of dealing with their double-secret-probation barefoot rule OK?

Oh, well. How much effort is it worth to fight further? I did manage to use the bus system. And I got to see just how inconsistent they are enforcing their “rule”.

Let’s cleanse our palates.

This elk cow was a frequent visitor to my campsite.

A Pregnant “Cow”

(And notice: she’s not wearing shoes.)

You may also notice that she’s looking a bit “fat”. That’s because it was calving season when I was at the Grand Canyon. While some of the cows had already given birth, she clearly hasn’t.

(Side note: why are deer “does” and “bucks” but elk (which are just big deer) are “cows” and “bulls”?)