5400 Miles in the USA (Hiking)

I asked my wife how she got around in the National Parks of the Southwest.
Everyday, if they were not driving from NP to NP, they would be walking / hiking within the parks.
Typically, they would walk 4 or even 5 hours a day.

Sometimes, they walked back to some scenic spots to see how they look during sunset.
Here is a picture which shows huge rock jutting above you, you walk underneath it as if it is a canopy. The path is narrow and winding; on the edge of the path is a slope which descend quite steeply.

My wife remarked that it would have been better if she have brought along two walking sticks ( instead of only one). here is a picture showing tourist resorting to two sticks.

Sometimes, visitors use both hands and knees for climbing up steep slopes. Maybe, in those situation, even walking sticks cannot help.

There are of course areas which are to steep. In some cases, ladders are provided for visitors to climb up. There are also areas where the paths are too narrow and dangerous, in such cases, chains on the slope side may be provided.

Of course, in some NPs, mules are available.

Here are a couple of photos, showing the mules.

One of these  is an amazing picture taken from above, which show many mules with an almost red earth color as background.

The intention of this post is to prepare some of the readers what to expect in the NPs of the Southwest.

Of course, some visitors do not seem to require anything to assist in their hiking.

My last photo show a lone visitor wandering among the strangely shaped rocks.