Me: I hardly know where to begin…so I guess it's best to start with Saturday (5/30) when Bob, Nathan & I started hiking at 4:00am! We had driven 5 hours on Friday to the Havasupai trailhead parking lot to camp. No facilities (gas, food etc) are within an hr & a 1/2 from the trailhead so we had all supplies packed. We pitched our tent & got a restless 5 hrs of sleep.
The 8 mile hike to the village is pretty. 2 miles of switchbacks, some high canyon walls & most through a rocky wash (which can take a toll on one's feet).
We were in good spirits & made great time going down. BTW: Nathan is a long time friend & was on our last trip to Havasupai (9 years ago) when I took a group of 40 people to see the falls. Today was a mini reunion for the 3 of us & we had fun reminiscing.
2.5 hrs of hiking & we arrived in Supai. It's a small village (208 people) but has a church, school, grocery store & cafe.
I've been to Havasupai at least a dozen times & find the village & people interesting. Tourism is their main source of income as they get a steady stream of visitors from all over the world that hike in to see the land of blue-green water. And this destination has gotten even more popular due to social media. I still find it sad that the properties are very run down & depressed. :-( We kept walking since it was another 2 miles past the village to the first waterfall.
1st sighting of Havasu Falls!
And 1st sighting of Mooney Falls!
The falls were a sight for sore eyes...
...and therapy for tired feet!
We had to climb down some chains & ladders to get to Mooney Falls. It's definitely a challenging route.
Once down we unloaded the backpacks, ate some snacks & hung out.
This is the tallest waterfall in Havasupai (190 ft).
Smaller falls & pools are all around it.
The clarity & color of water was amazing! This stream keeps heading down all the way to the Colorado River (another 8 miles). Maybe we'll hike that someday (but not this trip).
We did hike a little down stream to explore & found some neat things…like my own personal shower. ;-)
Mostly we were goofy. Yogi Nate!
Us & Nate (who is photo bombing behind us (L).
Now if only these guys would carry me out of the canyon!
Um…what can I say here?! haha.
After a good amount of time at Mooney we hiked up the chains to head for Havasu Falls.
Several mule trains run during the day carrying luggage & supplies from the rim to the village or campground. There is no road to Supai & I hope it always stays that way or this area would become Disneyland. You can pay for a helicopter ride out.
Bob made a friend en route to Havasu Falls…
(Pics of those falls tomorrow)
Beautiful pics....I can see why you love this area!
ReplyDeleteIt had been 9 years so it was fun to get back there. Just as beautiful and fun! So glad we went. Might try to get April, Abbie & Mike there in July. Only trouble is it's VERY hot there in July!!
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