Havasu Falls - Post Trip Details

So beautiful!! I recommend this trip to anyone! If you can't hike too far then ride a horse or helicopter in to the village and then just hike 2 miles to the falls and campground. But for me . . . I had to prove myself to myself that I could do it with a full backpack. I wish I had a scale to weigh my pack, but someone guessed that it weighed 35 pounds. We drove the 11 hours to the trail head on the rim of the Grand Canyon and then spent the night there on the rim. We began our hike around 7:00 or so (Arizona/California time) and hiked the 10 miles to the campgrounds beyond Havasu Falls. We did take a little break in the village of Supai to pay the balance of our permits and then continued on. Supai and Havasu Falls is located on the Havasupai Reservation in Arizona and there are no roads whatsoever into the village--everything has to be packed in on horses and mules or flown in by helicopter. There weren't any vehicles and especially any fancy houses. Poverty was apparent by the looks of their houses. There was a cute little chapel for the LDS branch there (see the pic). Despite their poverty and lack of vehicles--they have computers and the internet! Every sign we saw in the campground had their website listed at the bottom of it. C-r-a-c-k up.
We set up our campsite nearly at the end of the mile long campground and then we girls held up a tarp so we could change into our swimsuits and run back to the falls to go swimming. Saturday was the never-ending day because everyone, including myself, was always asking what time it was thinking it was nearing the end of the day but it was always only 2:30 or 3:00 or something crazy like that. There were a couple people in my group of 15 that put their packs on a mule to be packed in so they could just carry a day pack and sadly the villagers thought our mule was supposed to return to the rim so these people in my group didn't get their packs until the next day. But they did get to stay in the lodge up in the village and eat at the cafe for free.

Sunday, we all woke up and then got ready to hike back in to the village to go to church. The little branch of the church there is run by an elderly missionary couple. They teach Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood, but not Sacrament--they fly in speakers from the Kingman Arizona Stake! Isn't that wild? And church was only 2 hours. 95% of the attendees were tourists in shorts and t-shirts--including me and our group. One little village family did come to church, but that was it. Another interesting tid-bit is the missionary couple keeps white shirts and ties on hand for young men to put on in order to bless the Sacrament. Pretty cool and smart huh? We think they probably built the chapel because of all the tourists and there are a lot of Mormon tourists down there! Nearly every other hiker we passed was wearing a BYU t-shirt or hat or something. Crazy Mormon mecca. :o)

We hiked back to camp and all took naps and then we got up and hiked over to a mine behind Havasu Falls and explored it. That night was not as good for sleeping as the previous night was because it never cooled down, was windy and therefore blew sand all over us. Yuck. Oh! That reminds me: the hike from the village to the campground is all sand! Yes, SAND. That was bad hiking in and especially when hiking up hill. I can now tell my kids "I hiked 3 miles uphill in sand (both ways!) to go to church!!"

Then Monday came and I have to say I think it was my favorite day. We ate breakfast and then headed down to Mooney Falls and then on to Beaver Falls. We took our sweet time--at first it was against our wills, but then it was of our own making. What in the world does that mean?? you ask. So let me explain: To get down to the base of Mooney Falls you have to climb through tunnels and climb down steep pseudo-stair cases chiseled into the cliff side while holding onto chains and metal rods and whatnot. This was the part that was so slow against our will because we got stuck behind a Four Seasons Hotel group that had 8-year-olds among them! I cannot imagine taking my 8-year-old through that! They must have been scared to death because we literally spent 5 minutes on every step on the way down. After we finally made it to the base we headed down the trail to Beaver Falls - but we played along the way via cliff jumping and a rope swing. I LOOOOVED the rope swing. It was soooooo much fun. I wish I had one here. :o) Then we finished our hike to Beaver Falls and that was quite the adventure as well. There was one point where we had to climb up a ladder to get on top of a cliff to continue the hike, and that ladder was not up to code for sure! It was missing a rung! So we had to step on a knot in the wood in place of the rung. That kind of me me nervous. But I made it over and so did the rest of the group. We did some more swimming and cliff jumping at Beaver Falls. I was kind of disappointed in the cliff jumping everywhere because they were all huge cliffs! Where were the medium cliffs for me to jump off of??? Oh well--I made up for it on the rope swing. Then we hiked out and there was this awesome field of green-green plants--they were pretty to look at but boy did their low branches cut up the legs. Oh and side note: The Keen brand shoes are the way to go for this kind of hike because we were forging the river all along the way and then also hiking on dry ground. The Keens saved my feet and many others' as well.
I got away with murder with regards to my feet. I came out with just a little skin scraped off from my Keens rubbing a little wrong. But everyone else that wore Chacos and Tevas had serious problems. One girl wearing Chacos ripped her pinky-toe-nail off when she accidentally kicked a rock. Others got terrible blisters. And everyone had to wear duct-tape on their feet to try and protect the blisters they already had and then to also prevent more blisters. Thankfully, I missed that joy. So . . . word from the wise: buy some Keens.

We hiked out Monday morning and boy was that a dreadful hike out--it was all up hill . . . all 10 miles of it. And remember the first 2 miles were in sand. Uphill in sand. Yuck. Then it was a steady incline for the next 6 or so miles. And then . . . the worst of all worsts: the true hill and switchbacks for the last 1 and 1/2 miles up to the trail head. I started up it with the girl with the missing toe-nail and just as we were getting started one of the guys that had run all the way to the trail head from the village showed up and offered to take our packs. Angel sent from heaven is all I have to say - forget my pride and trying to prove myself. We strapped the other girl's day pack to my back pack and then he swung it on and jetted up the hill. The girl and I made it to the top and Jen had Gatorades for us right there. I immediately started sucking it down and it felt so good (yes, I did have 3 liters of water with me and drank most of it for the hike). Then when we got to the cars some of the others from the group were already there and welcomed us back . . . and I cried tears of joy to finally be done!! I think next time I will probably take that helicopter ride back to the car after all. That will be much more pleasant, don't you think?

All told, I think I probably hiked close to 40 miles this past weekend. Wowser. :o) Anyway the trip was fabulous. I felt like we were on an island rather than in the desert because the water was so blue and clear and beautiful and there was so much vegetation. Wow. It was a wonderful vacation and great to get out in the great outdoors.