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Havasu falls
This is a recap of our recent backpacking trip on the Havasupai Trail. We've been doing a lot of hiking, but the woman wanted to step it up and came up
with this trip to Havasu Falls. We invited our friends from Utah (we live in AZ) and luckily they were on board with it. After months of gathering stufff we would need
and setting up the correct reservations we were set.
Thursday about noon we left and headed up to Seligman where we would stay the night. This is also where we would meet up with our friends. ITs about
another 90 miles to the trailhead from here. After a nice meal at the Roadkill cafe, we hit up the local gas station where we grabbed some frozen
breakfast for the next morning, and set our alarm clocks
Friday morning, had the cars loaded up and left for the trail at 4:15am. Saw an elk on Indian Route 18, and also a cow. Got to the trailhead, had our
packs on our back and feet hitting the trail at 6am. The total hike is about 10 miles, our gps recorded just over 10 miles to our actual campsite.
It's 8 miles to the Supai village in the bottom of the canyon, we reached it in 3.5 hours. The village is small, but busy. We checked in at the
tourist office to get our hiking permits, and camping permit. Oh and the reservations still weren't correct after 4 long telephone calls, but the lady
was nice and just fixed it up for us right then. We then checked out the village store. Its mostly a small grocery store, but they did have nachos and
slurpees too. After that, we went to the cafe and enjoyed a nice breakfast. It was pricey, but good. Supai is the only place left that USPS delivers
by horseback. We then left for the campgrounds which is another 2 miles after the village. We set up camp, rested, then checked out Havasu Falls, then
dinner, then sleep, mucho tired that day.
Saturday, woke up late (7:30) haha. Enjoyed freeze dried bacon and eggs. After getting everything around we hiked to Mooney falls. Turns out, it
wasn't as far as we thought. ITs directly at the end of the campgrounds, about a mile from where we were set up. The hike down to Mooney falls is
interesting. there are a few small switchbacks, then a few tunnels and then a serious of chains and ladders pretty much straight down. Oh and towards
the bottom it gets slippery from the falls. Mooney falls is 195 feet and the largest fall down there. Bety didn't go down to the bottom of Mooney as
she doesn't do well with heights so just the 3 of us went down. From here you can hike another couple miles to beaver falls, but I didn't want to
abandon my lady so I just went back up after a while. Later that afternoon we went back to Havasu falls and spent some more time there.
Sunday was our departure day, we set our alarms for 3:30 am, thats right, we wanted to be able to hit the switchbacks going up early so the sun wasn't
TDC, remember its a 3000' climb out. We had everything packed up and we were hiking at 4am* (we will come back to the * later) Oh I have to mention
this. Supai village is full of random dogs, yeah wild dogs, they just roam around so that also means the campgrounds has these dogs roaming around too.
They don't really bother you, oh and there were two horses that were roaming the camp grounds too. So we left on our hike with our headlights on
hoping we made all the right turns. Well as we were leaving one of the dogs decided he was coming with us. The dog actually was a nice thing, once we
passsed the village and headed towards the main canyon, he helped us out finding the route a couple times. Then inside the canyon there are a few
places that we missed the trail going up to the side and he pointed it out to us. I'm glad the dog came since it was pitch black outside. We gave the
dog water a few times, I felt bad that we didn't have any food for him, we planned it so we wouldn't have extra food to carry out and all we had
were a couple of cliff bars, not even sure dogs like those. He was a good dog. I should also mention at some point the dog was acting very alert off to
the side, my friend shined his light over there and we saw a set of eyes, I picked up a good size rock, and Bety took out her pocket knife lol, turns
out it was a fox and it ran off real quick like. A few other fun things on the way out, we stopped once to take some drinks and check the time. while
we were doing this a voice said "how's it going?" I turned around and there was a dude laying on a rock. He was camped out there for the night. It was really odd we stopped right where he was camped. According to my math skills this put us at about half
way. I'd say another 1/4 mile down or so we ran into a group of about 6 tents set up in the canyon. Figured they had the same plan as the lone dude we
had found. The dog sniffed around the tents and layed down in the middle like he owned the place. All we had to do at this point was stay in the
canyon and we would be fine, plus the sun was coming up soon. Hopefully these people had some food for the dog so he could head back to the village,
he did us good. We didn't run into anyone on their way down until almost the switchbacks. It felt good reaching the top and we all felt better than expected. Checked
the time and we reached the parking lot in 4 hours and 40 minutes so I think we made good time. AS the sun was coming up it was very cloudy so that was
never an issue and I still have 2 liters in my 3 liter camelback. I did however chug a poweraid at the car. *** ok back to the *, when we got in the
car we noticed it was only around 8 am, not 9am like our phones said. Apparently the Supai people are on mountain time so we actually started hiking at
3am!!! hahaha nice.
It was a great trip!
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJxhiXxMZHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJxhiXxMZHs
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One of my very favorite places in the world. I do miss the old Havasupai though. The falls were much prettier before the flood of 2008. However, the two new falls are really really fun! Rock Falls is probably the best swimming hole in the area!
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Awesome report! Looks like a great trip! :popcorn:
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That place looks amazing. For sure going to have to add this to the list of places I wish to visit. Thanks for the great report.
