Havasupai

 One week before

My journey starts not in Arizona, but in up state California. My wife April and I are on a last minute weekend camping trip the redwoods. Humboldt State Park to be specific. It’s still quite cold at night so the campgrounds are empty and we have the pick of the lot.

That morning we woke very early, my idea so I could have plenty of time to stop and take photos along the way. Normally April is against this, but as I agreed to drive most of the way, it was a plan.

Our first stop produced something rather unexpected. But better stuff was soon to come.

Lots of flowers along the way!

By the time we hit the redwoods, we were hungry, and wanted to drive through some trees!

After Settling in a bit, we were ready to do some red wood exploring. If you have never seen the great west coast red woods, the size is unbelievable. Photos really don’t do it justice.

After a night of very comfortable camping thanks to our camp heater and a belly full of camp food, we started the trip home, where we met the most perfect dog.

It was shortly after this point when we got the news that changed everything. See, April is a teacher and gets huge chunks of vacation all throughout the year that she tries very hard to take advantage of as best she can. This usually involves making plans with other school teachers as I cannot take off work enough to keep up. So a few months ago she had made plans to go to the legendary Havasupai, a native reservation in Arizona known for its incredible beauty and magical blue waterfalls. The departure date was just one week away and I had planned to stay home that week and work on my own projects while April and her work friend did their adventure of a lifetime. But as we grabbed lunch at a bar in a small town on the way home, I returned from the bathroom to some surprising news. Aprils friend had become pregnite and no longer could attempt the trip.

So with some debate and finagling of schedules and accomications, I was now on the trip schedule. I had to take off a whole week of work last minute with wasn’t fun and totally wiped out the last of my vacation. And switching up travel last minute was a bit stressful, but in the end it all worked out. And seeing as i’m always one trip to storage away from being ready for a back packing trip, there wasn’t a whole lot else needed to prep for the vacation… So the following satruday, we were on a plane out to Las Vegas. Where adventure awaited.

Old Route 66

Due to a mix up at the car rental facility, our tiny eco box was swapped for a pretty decent full sized car. and the moment I realized our route could be changed to take us on the old Route 66 for only an extra 30 min, I quickly decided to take over driving for the second half of our short road trip to the hotel for our one hotel night before we start the hike.

We didn’t get to the hotel till about 1am, and we needed to check into the visitors center between 8 and 12 am. But as always, I awoke early to take photos around while the light was good.

The morning light of the desert is undeniable. I cannot not wake up for it. It is just so unbelievably beautiful and transformed anything it touches into a painting. The variety of colors as the sun slowly rises takes you on a journey, each part of the world transforms several times over as it goes from the glue predawn to the golden dawn to the pristine unforgiving light of the afternoon sun.

As the light looses its color, and the truth of the world around me begins to peak through, I get tiny glimpses into the reality and honesty of what it is to live here.

After a large and filling breakfast, we headed out to the Grand Canyons Cavorns where we would pick up our permits. Granted, a bit behind schedule.

They had really cool dinosaurs, so we I got some pics while April picked up the tickets. Then it was another two hour drive to the trail head….

Typically people pick up their permits the day before, and then get an early start. But April and I didn’t do that. We started the trail at around noon. So to help make the trip easier, we took advantage to the mule that Aprils friend had purchased. Typically we wouldn’t cheat like this, as we have no problems packing in all our stuff ourselves. but instead, we decided to take it easy and hike in with just our day packs, Leaving all the hard work to the mules.

the views of the grand canyon were, as always, amazing… And if you look closely at the above photos, you’ll see the helicopter that would be zooming by all day. Carrying people out of the canyon and supplies into the canyon. At first we were above the helicopter, and then as we hiked further and future down into the canyon, it would be above us.

Not too far into the hike, we met a friend. Turns out these guys would be all over the place. This one was quite friendly tho and stuck by our side for a while.

After several hours of hiking, we reached a small native village. There was no photography allowed in the village, and as we got a late start we were probably one of the last hikers to pass though. The village is only accessible via helicopter and most people seem to get around via horse or 4 wheeler. So we Passed though without stopping, and were soon nearing the campground. We were very, very excited! The light was going tho. We only had maybe a hour of light left.

Our first glimpse of the water was… well it was magical. Truly. I don’t have a color photography from my first night because the light was too low, but man… it was amazing. April says she saw lots of water like this in Glacier national park, but for me it was my first time. Here, the unusual color is due to Lyme in the water. But we had to get moving after a bit, time to find a camp!

All of the good sites were taken, and actually pretty much all the sites with tables were taken, so able and I had to settle for one without a table next to the river. We pitched the tent, and cooked an amazing dinner of duck breast and noodles. Yeah, you heard that right. April brought a smoked duck breast with her and some high class Raman. It hit the spot and that night we slept better than I had in months.

The next morning, a lot of the campsites had cleared out as a big group of campers headed home. So April and I had the pick of the litter for our favorite camp site! we found a private island that we could have all to ourselves. the only way we can get there would be to walk across a small log and on that island was enough room for a tent, a table and a hammock. So we spend the morning moving camp.

Thankfully, I had a reminder on my phone for the eclipse. Because just as we were getting ready to head out for that days hike, the sun was nearing its largest coverage for our areas. So we found the space on our little island with the best view and took a look

With one amazing experience down, it was time for another, the hike to Mooney Falls.

The Falls exist only a short walk from where our tent is, and in fact some tents are set up right next to the falls. But the hike down… Its interesting.

our first time down was pretty easy, not that many people were there so there wasn’t a wait. It took only a few minutes to get down but I could see how if you weren’t adventurous this cliff climb could be seen as a life or death experience.

the water was great and refreshing to wade in. and after a while of chilling, we decided to head back up. This time there was a bit of a line.

After, we headed back towards town to see if we could grab some flat bread and just chill around 50ft fall which we had walked past the previous day.

it was now back to camp for a quick dinner and an early night. Once again April and I went to sleep and had a great restful night.

For our second full day in Havasupai, we decided to make the hike out to beaver falls for some swimming and relaxing.

To get there, we had to go back down moody falls, but because we had done it yesterday we planned to book it though. But life had different plans. A group ahead of us was struggling and despite the fact that it had taken us about 5 minutes to decend the previous days, it took almost an hour to get down today. A bit of a bummer but we wernt’t going to let that stop us.

The hike after that point was very easy. A slight down hill with a few river crossings. And on the way we even got to see a ram! After making it to the falls, I put the camera away for most of my time there tho. I just wanted to enjoy the water. I started by doing a cannon ball into the water and then spend some time climbing up the water falls and all that good stuff. The water was cold but fun on the less. Quite a blast and no regrets. After, we got out and I took the camera out for a few pics and we made lunch.

Because we are deep in a canyon, the sun has long left use even tho its only 3 or 4 in the afternoon. But we don’t yet want to go back. So instead we hike back only a mile or two to a beautiful spot we found to set up our hammock and I needed some time to filter water. But on our way, I found the strangest thing. The corpse of a bat, that looks as if it had impelled itself on a cactus.

Heavy Metal

About 20 min after we got settled, I was relaxing. About to fall asleep in the hammock, when April work me to let me know the Rams had showed up!

At first it was just one, then it was three.

Once that magical moment passed, we headed home. In about a hour or so we were back at the campsite and since we had to wake up very, very early the next day, we decided to eat early and be in bed by dusk.

Hike Out

The alarm was set of 5:50am. We snoozed a few times but got the camp set up by a little after 7. We were hoping to take the helicopter out of the canyon, but fully prepared to hike out if it wasn’t running. So we started the 3 ish mile hike to town, hoping that there would be a helicopter waiting for us.

Sadly, after waiting for almost an hour for the helicopter to show, we had to set off disappointed. But on the bright side we had a breakfast burrito and breakfast sandwich in our stomachs and some extra gatoraid in our bags. The hike out was going to be hard. It was 20 degrees warmer than our hike in and we had a total of nearly 3k feet of elevation gain before we got out of the canyon. So lets get started!

After many many many hours and lots and lots and lots of breaks…. we made it to the final climb. Most of the hike is a steady incline, till the last few miles, where it turns to a near vertical. And here boom just like that we are done!

On our way up we we had made a few trail friends and we dropped them off at their cars. And then we made the very long drive to our hotel. We had dreams of making it out to someplace new and exciting or exploring Route 66 and finding a brewery… But… We are tired… So lets just go grab a drink and head to bed. And that’s exactly what we did! We went to the best place in town, which just so happens to be the same place we went for breakfast the day we started the trail. I got a huge steak and April got her French dip. A few beers later we were about to fall asleep in our chairs. But the neon was really really cool, so I had to spend a few minutes just photographing it.

Last Steps before Home

After one of the most amazing hiking experience of our lives, it was now time to go home. But being in such a beautiful part of the country, even that was part of the journey. What lies ahead of us is a few hundred miles of history. Classic America known as Route 66.

After we made it to Vegas, we had a huge lunch at a restaurant called Bootleggers and then dropped our car off. We made it to the terminal with about 10 minutes to spare and got on our plane. Several hours later we were home. Tired, but satisfied. Happy to be home, content with the adventure we had.