HAVASUPAI (July 29 – Aug 1)
TUESDAY
We traveled on Tuesday. A 10.5 hour drive through Vegas and back around to the middle of no where Indian Reservation land just passed Kingman, AZ. We crammed 5 of us into each car – Ben and I with Mich and Udine and Michael. We stopped in St. George for burgers and Custard. We stopped again in Kingman but no one was hungry so we kept going. We came to Havasu Lodge and looked for somewhere to eat before going to the hill top. The small store was closed and the only thing there was the lodge with a diner and small souvenir shop. Not even a gas station… We killed some time there and then filled our water bottles and said good bye to civilization. We took a winding road through the bulls and deer and squirrels and made it to the Hill Top parking lot about an hour later. We found the last 2 parking spots and pulled out our sleeping bags and pads and slept in the parking lot from 11 or 12 until 4:45am.
WEDNESDAY
I woke everyone up at 4:45am and we prepped for the 10 mile hike. Ben and I and Michelle and Udine had scheduled to have a ‘pack animal’ carry our stuff down to the campground so we dropped our bags off at 5am and left them – – it was pretty unofficial and I was a little worried if we would actually see our bags again but… at that point we were all in. We started hiking around 5:30am. The first part is a lot of switchbacks and very Down Hill. After that you just follow the river bed down to the Indian Village. We got to the village and rested for a bit. I guess the people carrying 50lbs on their backs were a little tired! We checked in at the office and paid and got our permits and then hiked the last 2 miles down into the camp ground and water falls. The water was super pretty and we started to see some falls on the hike. We got to Havasu Falls and the campground around 11am and scoped out the area to find the best camping spot. We ended up right by Fern Spring which is the only water source for the camp. We were up against the cliff which was on high ground so we felt safe in case of a flash flood and the wall provided shade throughout the afternoon.
We took a short nap and rested our feet and then went to see if the horses had brought our stuff in yet – they hadn’t so we were without our water shoes and went to check out Havasu Falls. It was beautiful and the water was so refreshing BUT it was not easy on the feet! Michelle was making me laugh cause she didn’t want to hurt her SENSITIVE feet so the water was just taking her down stream at times. We explored as long as we could with our bare feet and by the end Michelle almost got swept over a 6 foot fall – luckily she had a death grip on the rock and Sean and Michael? pulled her out. We went back to camp to wait for our water shoes 🙂
Our stuff came at 6:00ish – (not between 1 and 3 as advertized) So we made our way down to Mooney Falls. LaNell told us that it was just a short walk and then down a little ladder… well if you ever make it to Mooney Falls you will laugh at that description, like we did. It was quite the hike down into the water fall but it was amazing.
THURSDAY
On Thursday we slept in, (as much as you can up camping). We ate a little breakfast. Put our swim suits on. Packed a day pack and headed out past Mooney Falls in search of Beaver Falls. It was a 2 mile hike along the river. For a first section of the hike I joined Brady, Sean, Aaron, and Anthony in the water. We hiked down stream and jumped off of anything we could. It was fun to explore and see what was next. BUT Michael, LaNell and Ben said that it was taking us 4-5 times as long as for them to hike it so we got out of the water and made our way to Beaver Falls. At Beaver Falls there was an upper and lower falls that were pretty fun to jump off of – probably only 10-20 ft depending where you jumped.
It was just over an hour to hike back from Beaver – that’s if you just hike and don’t play along the way. We did stop and cool off in Mooney Falls on the way there and back. There’s a small 6 ft fall near the main fall and it was great for jumping in. We made it back to camp for late lunch and afternoon naps and a little rain. We headed out one more time to Havasu Fall. We wanted to go up to the Upper Falls above camp but we ran out of time. We swam and played at Havasu and enjoyed the BLUE water. It was not warm water but it wasn’t cold either. It was really just right and refreshing for 90-100 degree days.
We headed back to camp and ate dinner and half of our group packed up to hike out that night. Brady had to be home Friday evening so He and Sean and Michael and the Brown brothers hiked out around 8pm – got to the top around 1am and drove all night to get home. LaNell stayed with us and Michelle and Udine. We relaxed in camp and went to bed early so that we could hike out early in the morning.
FRIDAY
We got up and out of camp… I think at 6am. We dropped our bags off for the pack mule – where they happened to tell us that they had us on the list for yesterday and not today! So we were slightly panicked but… they said they would take care of it and we just kept hoping to see the horses pass us on the trail. We saw them pass us in the golf cart to town and then we saw some little kids lugging them up the road to their house in the village… again, we crossed our fingers and hoped we’d receive our luggage at the top, and in a timely manner.
The hike back was pretty good. Michelle and Udine got an early start and so Ben and I just tried to keep up with LONG LEGGED LaNEll the whole way back. She only has one speed and it is fast. But we made it all the way back in just under 4 hours! We made it before the lady waiting at the helicopter pad when we passed through the village! It just started to get hot as we made it to the top of the hill and back to our cars. We paid the 2$ for a cold soda and relaxed for a few minutes. And then the horses came! With all of our bags! I was thrilled that they were there shortly after us so we could start the 10 hour car ride back home.
a few last pictures:
they had picnic tables everywhere. in really random spots. how did they get them there and why?
we really wanted to play a game of ROOK at this table – it was perfectly placed in the water just at the right height so that the top of the table was dry but everything else was submerged… if we had a few more days in the canyon it would have happened.
It was REALLY BEAUTIFUL.
I liked to see all of the different rock formations and see where water once flowed and try to picture what it might have looked like years ago or at least before the last flood.
That is the official HAVASUPAI report – BUT don’t worry – this was only the pictures from my old water camera – I have intentions of getting everyone else’s pictures and posting again 🙂
