Amazon Packages: Journey to the Bottom of Grand Canyon

Delivering Amazon packages to Phantom Ranch, located nine miles below the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, is no easy feat. By way of Bright Angel Trail, the journey to the bottom of the canyon takes approximately four hours. With an elevation change of nearly 5,000 feet, rocky terrain and switchbacks, and a temperature difference of 25 to 30 degrees from top to bottom, this is an impressive journey for anyone to make, let alone a team of Grand Canyon employees on historic mules carrying Amazon packages!

Staying at Phantom Ranch is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that many people dream of experiencing, and the team behind this historic location goes above and beyond to ensure that every guest is astounded by the level of service in this remote location. From cooking delicious steak dinners, cozy cabins, and seamless operations to providing essential items like food, toiletries, mail, and you guessed it…Amazon packages, there’s a lot of effort that goes into making life at Phantom Ranch possible. 

“We bring down pretty much anything that Phantom Ranch might need and any sort of packages they want delivered,” said Annie Zenin, a Phantom Ranch mule packer.

On delivery days, work begins at 2:45am, where our expert packers weigh and take inventory of the items, feed and clean the mules, and carefully hoist the panniers filled with supplies onto the mules. At sunrise, the team begins their descent into the canyon. Two packers go down the trail, each leading a string of five mules until they reach the bottom of the canyon for delivery.

“The supplies that our mule team brings down are a critical part of making sure that life can exist down at the bottom comfortably and happily,” says Sam Langner, community relations manager for Xanterra Travel Collection®, which owns Phantom Ranch. “Having a service like Amazon available to employees, especially in a place as remote as Phantom Ranch, is fantastic.”

Perhaps the most fascinating and critical element of the delivery process is the mules themselves. Half-horse, half-donkey, each mule has a unique personality.

“They love people, and they love attention,” said Annie Zenin, a Phantom Ranch mule packer. “Every single mule that’s here loves having this job. They love being in the canyon.”

Despite the tremendous effort involved in delivering supplies to Phantom Ranch, the smiles and excitement on the faces of the employees at the bottom of the canyon make it all worth it. As Caly Lupien, head mule packer, said, “One of my favorite things about this job is that I’m helping these people that live down at the bottom of the canyon. We haul it down there and whenever we show up they’re like, ‘Do you have our packages? We got something from Amazon. Did you bring it down?’, and we’re like, ‘Yup, we got it. Right here.”

“It’s important to be able to give these people not only what they need, but also what they want while they’re living at the bottom of the canyon,” Zenin adds. “If they need anything ordered off of Amazon, they’ll get it.”

When it comes to bringing happiness and joy to the guests and workers in one of the most remote places in the world, the mule packers at Grand Canyon National Park Lodges have Amazon deliveries mastered.

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