Mules like these are the delivery trucks and taxis of the backcountry, something that I didn’t always appreciate. There was a time years back when I was simply annoyed by them, and felt that having to move to one side to let a string of animals pass was an affront. Then I found myself using pack animal support on a couple for long photography trips into the Sierra, and I was forced to modify my thinking. There are places that the beasts shouldn’t go, but they also have a very long history of supplying and supporting back-country travelers. I started backpacking long enough ago that I even recall occasionally seeing a lone backpacker leading a mule.
This trip was the first and only time that I’ve actually ridden a mule into the backcountry. It was, as those who have tried it probably know, and “interesting” experience. I don’t have the space here to relate the whole story. I made this photograph on our first morning, when we went to the pack station to load up our gear before hitting the trail.
(Update 9/3/26): Here is a little more context for this photograph and the original text. Starting in about 2008 I started joining a group of photographers (informally known as the “First Light Group”) on annual trips of a week or longer into the Sierra backcountry. Sponsored by the Yosemite Conservancy at first, the concept was to get groups of photographers (and sometimes other creatives) into remote, less-photographed areas of the Sierra backcountry and to ensure that we had everything we needed to do our work, including significant tonnage of camera equipment. Consequently, the group used pack trains to bring in a lot of the gear, though we typically walked ourselves in. But on this trip in the Southern Sierra, reaching out destination would take two days and include traverses of two nearly 12,000′ passes… so we rode the mules.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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