After church on Sunday, June 29th, we loaded up Robert’s pickup with our bags that we had packed the day before, and we hit the road for Kingman. Our traveling group consisted of Robert, Kody, Katie, Leslie, and me. The three from our family just had four bags: three duffels, each weighing the regulation 32#, which contained our tent, sleeping pads, sheets, fleece blankets (it was too hot for sleeping bags), and clothes for down in the canyon; our fourth bag contained our clean clothes for our two nights in the hotel in Kingman. Oh, and we also had a camelback each, for our water, hiking snacks, and other incidental stuff that we might want before the mule train arrived at camp. We made the trip to Kingman in the standard four hours and checked in to our hotel without any problems.
We got up at 3:45AM on Monday morning, grabbed a fast shower, got dressed, iced up our camelbacks, loaded our bags into Robert’s pickup and then followed our host, Dave, to the trailhead on the Havasupai reservation (about 120 miles from Kingman.) Dave is a local businessman who dabbles in many things, including land development and farming, and has been successful enough that he travels a lot and often invites family, friends, and friends of friends, whoever wants to come along, to come along with him (at our own expense, of course.) The first 60 miles out to the reservation was on Route 66, passing through Truxston, which I swear was featured in the Pixar movie “Cars.” We got to the trailhead at 7:00AM and stacked our duffels in a big pile with the rest of our group – there were around 130 of us all together – from which the mule train was going to load them up after we’d departed. After lathering ourselves with sunscreen we hit the trail; Kody took off like a shot, with Robert and Katie right behind, and Les and I took a more conservative pace (although we outpaced most of the rest of the party.) The trail starts off with some really steep switchbacks that take you down about 1000 feet over the first 1.5 miles into the canyon, and then you start walking down a more gradual slope through this long windy canyon, with alternating sandy and gravel floors. Since it was all downhill I wore my knee braces and used my hiking sticks and actually made the whole ten miles without too much arthritis knee pain. At Dave’s recommendation we stopped about halfway down the trail and changed into dry socks and put some moleskin on the spots developing blisters (Dave recommended duct tape;) I was getting blisters on the same spot where I’d given myself blisters walking across Coronado Island in San Diego a month ago. At 6-miles we hit the start of the river and trees and the walk became pretty pleasant and shady. At 8-miles we hit the Havasupai Indian village; it had (in order): dusty streets, a little store, an LDS church, a few houses, a tourist office, a helicopter ride office, a helicopter landing pad, a Post Office, a bigger store, a café, a school, a Protestant Church, and a lodge. We bought some cold drinks at the main store and looked for lunch at the café, but it was only 10:00AM and they were only serving breakfast, so we headed on down to the campground.
At the campground, 2 miles down from the village, you first hit the hitching posts where the mules drop off your bags, a cluster of port-a-potties, and then a string of campsites about a mile long. The campground was sprinkled with picnic benches and had one spigot of fresh water coming right out of the sandstone cliff (sandstone is a very good water filter.) When Les and I arrived, Katie, Robert, and Kody had already picked a fine camping spot near a shady tree. So we piled our bags on our picnic table, changed into our swim suits, and headed back up the trail about ¼ mile and visited the Havasu Falls. If you’ve seen a photo of the waterfalls in Havasupai, it was probably of Havasu Falls. It falls about 100 feet into a pool of blue-green-turquoise water – apparently the color comes from the lime in the water. What’s really neat is that the high content of lime in the water causes it to stick to all of the tree roots and rocks that it passes over, forming these beautiful organic limestone dams, which create a whole series of pools and little waterfalls cascading down the hills after each waterfall. After cooling ourselves off in the water for a couple of hours, we could see the dust from the muletrain going by (yes, I sang the Frankie Laine song the whole week), so we headed back to the campground to retrieve our bags, pitch our tents, and set up camp. That evening Dave served a wonderful dinner of pork chops, corn, green salad, and rolls with either lemonade or Tang to drink. He had this brilliant system where he’d cooked the meat in advance, then sealed it in these vacuum packs that he froze and then just had to boil to reheat, and the meat came out tasting like it was fresh off the grill. There was an attempt at a fireside/sing-along that evening, but there were very few willing participants so we just headed off to our tents to call it a night. I’ve got to say, it was very hot and sweaty in our tent and it took a very long time to fall asleep laying there on the hard ground. Finally, at what time I don’t know, it cooled down a bit and we slept the rest of the night away.
On Tuesday morning we got up with the sun (which doesn’t come very early down in the canyon) and helped prepare breakfast – they were cooking pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns and I just had to help flip the hotcakes (it's a compulsion of mine.) After breakfast the bulk of the group headed downstream about a mile to Mooney Falls. The trail was very easy, just winding through the campground until you get to this 200-foot cliff, where the trail got really fun – we got to climb down through a couple of tunnels and then scramble down the cliff face hanging on to chains and toe holds and ancient rickey wooden ladders. Our climbing experience here in Zion and Snow Canyon made this a breeze for us, but some folks really struggled with the challenge. Down at the bottom we played in the pools below Mooney Falls, which falls the whole 200 feet, with the turquoise water and cascading pools like up at Havasu Falls. Here there was a rope swing that most everyone had to try out (not me.) Some of our better swimmers (including Katie and Les) swam out to the waterfall and climbed up the rocks beside it and jumped about ten feet into the water. We headed back to camp in time for lunch – they served cold sandwich meat on flour tortillas – it was yummy. After lunch we headed about ½ mile upstream to Navajo Falls, which I thought was the most beautiful of all. Navajo is only about 75 feet tall, but it was very wide and instead of one thin stream it fell over a series of drops, looking very much like a bride’s veil. Best of all, this fall had a lot of nooks, crannies, and grottos around its edges, making it very fun to explore. And of course, Les and Katie had to climb up about 10 feet and jump in to the water. After exploring the face of the falls, Robert led us up the backside of the falls, using this little side waterfall as our ladder – it wasn’t slippery as you’d expect due to the lime in the water making all surfaces very grippy – we went all the way up to the top of the falls and soaked for a while in the pools up there. (The attached photo is of one of the grottos and pools up above Navajo Falls.) That evening we had grilled chicken breasts, green beans with almonds, green salad, and rolls for dinner. After dinner a group of us got together and played cards and “Catch Phrase” until it was too dark to see.
On Wednesday we decided to forgo the long hike down to Beaver Falls, which are five miles downstream from camp and aren’t that spectacular – after all, who needs a ten mile hike the day before we were scheduled to make our ten mile hike out of the canyon? So we spent the morning at Mooney Falls again – the climb down into the canyon really makes that little trip fun. After chili-cheese dogs for lunch, we headed back up to Navajo Falls, where Leslie and Katie decided to challenge themselves and jump in from an even higher rock – probably 20 feet high or so. Then we decided to climb the waterfall-ladder again, and went up even higher than the day before. Back at camp we found that the number of injured from our party had risen to three – people who had seriously hurt themselves jumping into the pools and hitting rocks – they were going to have to helicopter out the next day – both Katie and Leslie had grazed themselves on rocks while jumping into the pools, but were still fit for hiking. For dinner that night we carbo-loaded with a lovely spaghetti dinner, after which we amused ourselves playing cards until it was too dark to see.
On Thursday morning we had our standard pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns for breakfast before we struck camp and packed up everything into our duffels for the mules to carry out. Then we killed a few hours in the water at Havasu Falls – we didn’t want to hike out in the heat of the day. A little after noon we changed into our dry hiking clothes and headed back up the trail the two miles to the village – that little jaunt was really hot and miserable. So we shaded up at the little café there in the village and had lunch and copious amounts of Gatorade. When it got to be 2:00PM we bought some frozen Gatorades for the trail, iced up our camelbacks, and hit the road. We were just going up to the end of the river, another two miles upstream from the village, to stay cool until it got later in the day so we’d have shade while hiking through the canyons, but suddenly an unexpected cloud came up and so we just kept on going. It turned out that we were shaded by those blessed clouds all the way out until we hit the final switchbacks on the final mile or two – it was really pleasant. The last drag up the hill was brutal in the full sunshine, but we managed to make it, draining the last water from our camelbacks and killing our now melted Gatorades. In the end, we were some of the first to make it out of the canyon, at 6:30PM, but about two hours behind Robert and Kody, who had the pickup all loaded with our bags and ready to go. At the parking lot Dave, our host, had one of his sons waiting with frosty/slushy orange juice, which felt really good on our dry parched throats. From there it was a quick two hours’ drive back to the hotel in Kingman – we were all too tired to want dinner so we just showered and called it a day.
On Friday, the 4th of July, we got up, showered, loaded the pickup and headed home. It’s just four hours on the roads between Kingman and St. George. At home we found Annie and Dobie safe and sound – so we can count this as another successful family trip. Here at home we unpacked and put away the camping gear. We grilled hamburgers to celebrate the 4th of July and watched the movie “Independence Day” (with Will Smith.) We drove uptown that night to watch the fireworks at 10:00PM – they were as spectacular as usual. And that completed our week in paradise. I've posted our photos on-line - let me know if you want me to send you an invitation to view them.
We got up at 3:45AM on Monday morning, grabbed a fast shower, got dressed, iced up our camelbacks, loaded our bags into Robert’s pickup and then followed our host, Dave, to the trailhead on the Havasupai reservation (about 120 miles from Kingman.) Dave is a local businessman who dabbles in many things, including land development and farming, and has been successful enough that he travels a lot and often invites family, friends, and friends of friends, whoever wants to come along, to come along with him (at our own expense, of course.) The first 60 miles out to the reservation was on Route 66, passing through Truxston, which I swear was featured in the Pixar movie “Cars.” We got to the trailhead at 7:00AM and stacked our duffels in a big pile with the rest of our group – there were around 130 of us all together – from which the mule train was going to load them up after we’d departed. After lathering ourselves with sunscreen we hit the trail; Kody took off like a shot, with Robert and Katie right behind, and Les and I took a more conservative pace (although we outpaced most of the rest of the party.) The trail starts off with some really steep switchbacks that take you down about 1000 feet over the first 1.5 miles into the canyon, and then you start walking down a more gradual slope through this long windy canyon, with alternating sandy and gravel floors. Since it was all downhill I wore my knee braces and used my hiking sticks and actually made the whole ten miles without too much arthritis knee pain. At Dave’s recommendation we stopped about halfway down the trail and changed into dry socks and put some moleskin on the spots developing blisters (Dave recommended duct tape;) I was getting blisters on the same spot where I’d given myself blisters walking across Coronado Island in San Diego a month ago. At 6-miles we hit the start of the river and trees and the walk became pretty pleasant and shady. At 8-miles we hit the Havasupai Indian village; it had (in order): dusty streets, a little store, an LDS church, a few houses, a tourist office, a helicopter ride office, a helicopter landing pad, a Post Office, a bigger store, a café, a school, a Protestant Church, and a lodge. We bought some cold drinks at the main store and looked for lunch at the café, but it was only 10:00AM and they were only serving breakfast, so we headed on down to the campground.
At the campground, 2 miles down from the village, you first hit the hitching posts where the mules drop off your bags, a cluster of port-a-potties, and then a string of campsites about a mile long. The campground was sprinkled with picnic benches and had one spigot of fresh water coming right out of the sandstone cliff (sandstone is a very good water filter.) When Les and I arrived, Katie, Robert, and Kody had already picked a fine camping spot near a shady tree. So we piled our bags on our picnic table, changed into our swim suits, and headed back up the trail about ¼ mile and visited the Havasu Falls. If you’ve seen a photo of the waterfalls in Havasupai, it was probably of Havasu Falls. It falls about 100 feet into a pool of blue-green-turquoise water – apparently the color comes from the lime in the water. What’s really neat is that the high content of lime in the water causes it to stick to all of the tree roots and rocks that it passes over, forming these beautiful organic limestone dams, which create a whole series of pools and little waterfalls cascading down the hills after each waterfall. After cooling ourselves off in the water for a couple of hours, we could see the dust from the muletrain going by (yes, I sang the Frankie Laine song the whole week), so we headed back to the campground to retrieve our bags, pitch our tents, and set up camp. That evening Dave served a wonderful dinner of pork chops, corn, green salad, and rolls with either lemonade or Tang to drink. He had this brilliant system where he’d cooked the meat in advance, then sealed it in these vacuum packs that he froze and then just had to boil to reheat, and the meat came out tasting like it was fresh off the grill. There was an attempt at a fireside/sing-along that evening, but there were very few willing participants so we just headed off to our tents to call it a night. I’ve got to say, it was very hot and sweaty in our tent and it took a very long time to fall asleep laying there on the hard ground. Finally, at what time I don’t know, it cooled down a bit and we slept the rest of the night away.
On Tuesday morning we got up with the sun (which doesn’t come very early down in the canyon) and helped prepare breakfast – they were cooking pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns and I just had to help flip the hotcakes (it's a compulsion of mine.) After breakfast the bulk of the group headed downstream about a mile to Mooney Falls. The trail was very easy, just winding through the campground until you get to this 200-foot cliff, where the trail got really fun – we got to climb down through a couple of tunnels and then scramble down the cliff face hanging on to chains and toe holds and ancient rickey wooden ladders. Our climbing experience here in Zion and Snow Canyon made this a breeze for us, but some folks really struggled with the challenge. Down at the bottom we played in the pools below Mooney Falls, which falls the whole 200 feet, with the turquoise water and cascading pools like up at Havasu Falls. Here there was a rope swing that most everyone had to try out (not me.) Some of our better swimmers (including Katie and Les) swam out to the waterfall and climbed up the rocks beside it and jumped about ten feet into the water. We headed back to camp in time for lunch – they served cold sandwich meat on flour tortillas – it was yummy. After lunch we headed about ½ mile upstream to Navajo Falls, which I thought was the most beautiful of all. Navajo is only about 75 feet tall, but it was very wide and instead of one thin stream it fell over a series of drops, looking very much like a bride’s veil. Best of all, this fall had a lot of nooks, crannies, and grottos around its edges, making it very fun to explore. And of course, Les and Katie had to climb up about 10 feet and jump in to the water. After exploring the face of the falls, Robert led us up the backside of the falls, using this little side waterfall as our ladder – it wasn’t slippery as you’d expect due to the lime in the water making all surfaces very grippy – we went all the way up to the top of the falls and soaked for a while in the pools up there. (The attached photo is of one of the grottos and pools up above Navajo Falls.) That evening we had grilled chicken breasts, green beans with almonds, green salad, and rolls for dinner. After dinner a group of us got together and played cards and “Catch Phrase” until it was too dark to see.
On Wednesday we decided to forgo the long hike down to Beaver Falls, which are five miles downstream from camp and aren’t that spectacular – after all, who needs a ten mile hike the day before we were scheduled to make our ten mile hike out of the canyon? So we spent the morning at Mooney Falls again – the climb down into the canyon really makes that little trip fun. After chili-cheese dogs for lunch, we headed back up to Navajo Falls, where Leslie and Katie decided to challenge themselves and jump in from an even higher rock – probably 20 feet high or so. Then we decided to climb the waterfall-ladder again, and went up even higher than the day before. Back at camp we found that the number of injured from our party had risen to three – people who had seriously hurt themselves jumping into the pools and hitting rocks – they were going to have to helicopter out the next day – both Katie and Leslie had grazed themselves on rocks while jumping into the pools, but were still fit for hiking. For dinner that night we carbo-loaded with a lovely spaghetti dinner, after which we amused ourselves playing cards until it was too dark to see.
On Thursday morning we had our standard pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns for breakfast before we struck camp and packed up everything into our duffels for the mules to carry out. Then we killed a few hours in the water at Havasu Falls – we didn’t want to hike out in the heat of the day. A little after noon we changed into our dry hiking clothes and headed back up the trail the two miles to the village – that little jaunt was really hot and miserable. So we shaded up at the little café there in the village and had lunch and copious amounts of Gatorade. When it got to be 2:00PM we bought some frozen Gatorades for the trail, iced up our camelbacks, and hit the road. We were just going up to the end of the river, another two miles upstream from the village, to stay cool until it got later in the day so we’d have shade while hiking through the canyons, but suddenly an unexpected cloud came up and so we just kept on going. It turned out that we were shaded by those blessed clouds all the way out until we hit the final switchbacks on the final mile or two – it was really pleasant. The last drag up the hill was brutal in the full sunshine, but we managed to make it, draining the last water from our camelbacks and killing our now melted Gatorades. In the end, we were some of the first to make it out of the canyon, at 6:30PM, but about two hours behind Robert and Kody, who had the pickup all loaded with our bags and ready to go. At the parking lot Dave, our host, had one of his sons waiting with frosty/slushy orange juice, which felt really good on our dry parched throats. From there it was a quick two hours’ drive back to the hotel in Kingman – we were all too tired to want dinner so we just showered and called it a day.
On Friday, the 4th of July, we got up, showered, loaded the pickup and headed home. It’s just four hours on the roads between Kingman and St. George. At home we found Annie and Dobie safe and sound – so we can count this as another successful family trip. Here at home we unpacked and put away the camping gear. We grilled hamburgers to celebrate the 4th of July and watched the movie “Independence Day” (with Will Smith.) We drove uptown that night to watch the fireworks at 10:00PM – they were as spectacular as usual. And that completed our week in paradise. I've posted our photos on-line - let me know if you want me to send you an invitation to view them.
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