Havasupi Hike

Alisha says: Bucket list item ✅. I have always wanted to hike to the Havasupi waterfalls in a remote area of the Grand Canyon on the Havasupi Indian Reservation. The trail head is off the old route 66 in northeast Arizona but from there you have to hike 10 miles before you get to the first waterfall. Advanced permits are required and there are only two options for lodging, campground or a small lodge in the village of Supai. When lodge reservations opened up on June 1st, 2018 for 2019 reservations I started calling. I called and called close to 1,000 times over several days and just as I was about to give up my call was answered. I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. I was able to book 2 rooms for 2 nights for mid May 2019. Yippee!!

May 13th: After waiting a whole year it was finally time to go! My childhood friend and adventure buddy Shannon and her husband were able to join us along with Parker, Rachel, Kaylee, and Kaylee's friend Ella. My mom was so kind to come stay at our house and watch the girls for a few days. This was my first time leaving Jade overnight so I was a little nervous about that. We drove four hours and spend the night in a little old hotel on route 66.

May 14th: We woke up early, ate some breakfast and drove the last hour to the trail head where we met up with everybody. Since we were staying at the lodge we didn't have to pack tents or camping stuff so we just had day packs that were filled with a few clothing/personal items, food, snacks and water. We enjoyed the 8 mile hike to the small village of Supai where the lodge is. We got there a little early for check in so we ended up getting some fry bread with beans from a local vendor and then chilling under a tree until we could check in. There is usually a small cafe in the village that Dave and I were planning on eating our dinners at but it was closed and under renovation the whole time we were there. Luckily there is a general store that we were able to supplement our dinner and we were able to sign up for a dinner one night at the lodge. After checking in and resting we continued our hike another mile to Lower Navajo Falls where we swam and cooled off in the pools above the water fall. It was cool and a little unnerving that you could swim up to and look right over the edge of this waterfall. We then hiked a little further to Havasu Falls. It is truly a very impressive waterfall. We swam around in the pools at the bottom and just admired the beautiful scenery for a while before hiking back to the lodge.

May 15th: We got up fairly early and started our hike. After passing lower Navajo Falls and Havasu Falls again the trail continues through the length of the campground so we god to see lots of different camping setups from tents to hammocks. It could be fun and a whole different experience to camp sometime. Right after the campground we got to Mooney Falls. Mooney falls has a huge "wow" factor, it is so beautiful. The view from the top is incredible and then you get to descend down to the bottom through a series of little caves and ladders that is a cool adventure of it's own. We continued downstream following the river for a bit before leaving it to go through a jungle-ly type area that was very interesting. Finally we made it to Beaver Falls. Beaver Falls is a cool area of a bunch of cascading pools. I was hungry so we found some shade, ate a snack and then did some exploring/swimming. After watching a guy jump off a medium size fall a few times we all worked up our courage and took the plunge also. It was fun and we all had big smiles on our faces after the first time so we did it a second time. The hike back to the lodge actually felt shorter to me than the hike down. We stopped for some fry bread just above Havasu Falls, then did some more swimming in Lower Navajo falls to make it a full day before finishing back at the lodge.

Mooney Falls

Beaver Falls

May 16th: Everyone started waking up around 5am so we just got up, packed up the last of our stuff and started the hike out. It was a pleasant hike out as we had shade for much of the first half and then a few high wispy clouds blocked some of the sun on the final 1+ mile climb up to the top. We had a truly amazing few days surrounded by beauty that you have to experience in person.