Another hike - to Havasupai.
Awesome!
We left the valley at 6:30 pm.
You read that right 6:30 PM.
I drove for this hike and after the 5 hour drive
we arrived at the Havasupai trailhead at 11:30.
We quickly loaded up and headed down the trail at 11:40 pm.
In the pitch dark. Using head lamps.
No moon.
Quite an adventure!
After 2 hours stumbling down the trail - er - I mean hiking we pulled over and
found a flat area to allow us to lay down and try to get some rest.
The Supai Village Office didn't open until 6:00 am
and we couldn't proceed to the campground without our office issued wristband.
So even if we didn't sleep we did rest our bodies a bit.
This was the view as we arrived in the village.
It was 6:15 am upon arrival.
Their very efficient office only took 1 hour to issue our wristbands.
This was our first glimpse of the beautiful clear waters that Havasupai is famous for!
The old Navajo Falls are no more and these have formed in the same area.
They have named them Little Navajo Falls.
This one is the classic Havasupai Falls.
The floods have wreaked havoc on this feature.
It has lost about 1/3rd of its height and so many of the pools are gone now.
Proof that I am actually there. No photoshop. I was there.
The Havasupai Hike is divided this way:
Switchbacks = 1.5 miles
Follow dry creek bed to Supai Village = 6.5 miles
Village to campgrounds = 2 miles
Total hike 10 miles
Well if that wasn't enough hiking for us we decided to do some more.
The group we met up with wanted to hike down stream to Beaver Falls.
That was another 3.5 miles from the campground.
(I'm counting it as 4 as that is probably more accurate)
As a side note:
On the way out of the campground a girl in our group fell and hurt her arm.
I suspected it was broken by her reaction.
So my friend duck-taped a plastic spoon onto her arm/wrist - what!?
That girl stayed back and we went ahead on our little adventure.
Our 3.5 mile hike down to Beaver Falls was pretty taxing.
First we had to go down the Mooney Falls obstacle course.
Talk about steep and scary!
I got wet there and we went on.
We went past lots of beautiful blue ponds and streams.
We also walked through areas so thick with wild grape vines that you could see nothing else.
They covered everything!
We scooted and clambered down lots of old travertine formations.
There were ledges to maneuver past.
We stopped a couple times during the hike to cool off in the streams.
There were also some gaps that could not be managed without ladders.
The Indian Rangers have those placed in all appropriate places.
This is Beaver Falls.
On the left side of the lower falls in the picture there is a "green room".
You swim down through a hole and then come up into an open area.
It is full of travertine formations that hang down and can give you quite a headache.
I also jumped from the right side of the falls there.
It was about 12 or 15 feet. That was the best I did.
Some beautiful spot along the way.
We saw this mountain goat on our way back.
It just stood there and watched us hiking back to camp.
At 7 pm we headed back up to the village to see their fireworks.
We sat at the LDS chapel to see them.
It was a front row seat.
Pretty awesome.
We could see the cliff formations in the background.
We could see the flash and hear the bangs -
then we could see and hear them again as they echoed and bounced off the canyon walls.
Pretty awesome 4th of July!
I want you to get the picture of what has happened so far.
Within 24 hours:
10 mile hike to Havasupai
8 mile hike to Beaver Falls and back
4 mile hike to Village and back
Let's see, according to my math that is a total of
22 miles!
It was warm in the canyon - 107 or so.
So the night wasn't that comfortable either.
It was warm.
By 5 I was wide awake and hot.
So I got up and enjoyed a small breeze.
I ate breakfast, soaked my feet in the creek, and rinsed out my hiking clothes.
I waited, and waited, and waited for someone else to get up.
It was past 8 before anyone else was up.
So on Friday our friend with the hurt arm joined us in our adventures.
We headed up to Havasupai Falls to swim and play.
Then we continued on the the new Little Navajo Falls.
There was swimming and cliff jumping.
We walked around behind the falls and came out through them.
Wow! That water is coming down with some real power!
We just spent the whole day enjoying the water and the beauty.
At the last area I stayed out to let my feet dry out a bit.
But the sound and view was beautiful!
At about 3 we got a nice rainstorm in camp.
And because we didn't know how our friend with the broken arm would do
we decided to hike out in the dark and therefore not in the heat like we did coming in.
I would say that we put in another 4 miles too.
Total miles for the entire Havasupai trip would be - 36 miles.
The end.
Oh and then I found 24 cents!
I really did.
And one of the pennies was a wheat penny.
