Havasupai and Grand Canyon Adventures

Part of our ritual as a family was bi-annual trips to hike in the awesome

geology of the Grand Canyon. These hiking trips included trails in the main

canyon from the south and north rim down to the mighty Colorado River and most

often to our favorite, the waterfalls of Havasupai Canyon. A couple of times we

took the easy way to see the magnificent canyon and floated the incredibly huge

and raging river. But mostly we hoofed it down into the canyon and then

laboriously climbed back out with everything on our backs.

As I hiked back out on these trips my thoughts would turn to my Grandpa

Joe. In the 30’s he had worked down in the Grand Canyon building a water line

for the new hotel, El Tovar from the lush spring at Indian Gardens deep in the

canyon. Maybe those grueling journeys on foot every day in and out of the canyon

to work had something to do with how he could still lift a telephone pole onto the

roof rack of his truck well into his 80s. Once he is said to have carried a hiker that

got into trouble on the Bright Angel trail out to the top of the rim on his back.

Way to go Joe.

While trips down from the south or north rim to Phantom Ranch on the river

had their own magic and interest, it was the trips to the turquoise water of Havasu

Falls that I looked forward to every spring and fall. Preparations would begin

months in advance with trying to get a call answered by the hiking reservations’

office at the Havasupai Indian Village in the bottom of Havasupai Canyon. Most

of the time no one answered and they did not have an answering machine. You got

to just keep trying. You have to have a reservation to hike and stay in the canyon.

Once you have made the eight mile trek from the end of the road at Hualapai

Hilltop three thousand feet down into the remote canyon, you aren’t surprised that

the phone often doesn’t work. It is hiking down into another world.

The Havsuw’ Baaja (Blue Water People), or the Havasupai, are an

American Indian tribe that has called this part of the Grand Canyon home for more

than 800 years. The small village at Supai nestled in the cool shade of fruit trees

and deep in the sand of the creek bed is dwarfed by towering sandstone cliffs.

Several of the huge wind carved formations in the canyon walls look like

grandmothers protecting the village. Yet, over the years, the village, fields,

campground and trails have been subject to numerous disastrous flash floods along

the creek. Sometimes the canyon is closed to visitors for months or years, as was

the recent case.

When you first encounter Havasu Creek along the trail it is hard to

imagine that this gently meandering little stream can gather enough volume from

rains on the surrounding land and canyons to flood the bottom of the canyon. In

fact in 2008 the last flash flood demolished Navajo Falls, one of the four world

renowned turquoise waterfalls of the canyon and forced the closure of the entire

canyon to visitors for a number of years.

The waters, the indescribable blue waters that tumble over 200+ foot

waterfalls, are what have made this canyon and these people known the world

over. It is what has drawn my family back every year, twice a year, since I was 7

years old. Back then we would get a reservation for most of a week in the spring

and fall. We had found that this was the best timer to be in the arid desert climate

at the bottom of the canyon with its 3,000 foot elevation. It was warm during the

day and we could float, swim and play till the skin on our fingers shriveled, in the

magic of the blue water.

The source of most of the water in Havasu creek is from an underground

stream. It maintains a constant temperature of around 70 degrees. This warm

ambient temperature is what accounts for the travertine formations that are formed

from the minerals dissolved in the water and anything that falls into the creek. The

minerals and debris create magical curving pools and falls over which the water

tumbles and cascades down the canyon. There really are no words to describe the

magic of the color and the fanciful shapes. The minerals coat everything with a

white background on which the constantly changing reflection of the sunlight

creates a startling and ever shifting show. The light and water forms shades of

blue from light turquoise, to bright cornflower and deep sapphire. People travel

from all over the world to hike the trail through the layers of red and buff

sandstone to take in the colors of these waters and the spectacular waterfalls

against the stunning backdrop of the Grand Canyon.

Mooney Falls is the tallest at 320 feet. Said to have been named after a

miner, one Mr. Mooney, managed to fall off the cliffface of the waterfall to his

death in the 1880’s. No wonder, as he was trying to climb the steep, wet face of

the falls with an injured companion tied to his back. A climb down to the tranquil

pools below Mooney Falls is still death defying. To descend the travertine cliff

next to the falls you have to enter several passageways that are barely big enough

for the average person, climb down the cliff face whilst holding on to chains and

crawling through vertical tunnels. I always try to remember not to look at the 300

foot drop and to breath. I have done it a dozen times and it never fails to amaze me

that I am doing this crazy thing again. To top it all off it is slippery as glass with

the mist from the falls and people are coming up and going down in the same place

at the same time. The pools at the bottom are beautiful and after I have survived

the climb I am happy to swim and float in the water, until I remember I have to go

back up the same way.

There are several options for getting to the campgrounds under the shade of

the towering Cottonwoods lining the creek, you can hike, you can ride a mule, you

can send your pack on the mule or the most amazing, you can take a helicopter in

or out. Taking the chopper out of the canyon saves you the trouble of hiking up

the 3,000 foot climb, most of which is steep switchbacks at the end of the trail.

The chopper ride is something I have left to do sometime in the future. I know

several people who have done it and they all say that it is one of the highlights of

their life.

When you are deciding which method to take in and out of the canyon you

should remember that it has a big impact on what you should bring on the trip to

the canyon. Funny how things carried on your back weigh much more than their

scale weight. The mules have a 40 lb per pack limit and there is a limit on the

weight for the chopper, too. I remember one year my uncle sent an ice chest down

on the mules packed with steaks, potatoes and beer, alongside his lawn chair and

cot. He wasn’t camping in the bottom of a remote canyon. He was on vacation.

Experience has taught us that less is more on a backpacking trip and one of

our best ideas was to use inflatable pool rafts for our sleeping pads. We blew

them up when we got down, floated in the water all day, and then slept on them at

night. Ah now that was camping. You do have to be careful that the hungry

critters do not get into your food and take off with it. One year I remember an

enterprising squirrel as he tried to roll an avocado away from our camp. Its uneven

egg shape made his efforts extremely comical. We let him work at trying to steal it

for a while and then took the avocado back. After all we had brought it a very long

way.

We usually forwent the weight of tents and prayed for sunshine. One of the

years our usual luck did not hold. We were faced with a nasty black thunderstorm.

We knew we needed to find shelter fast. Our only option was to climb up the cliff

to one of the deep sandstone overhangs in the wall of the cliff. It was dry and felt

safe from the rain and possible flashfloods, after we determined that no bats or

rattlesnakes were sharing our bedroom. One of the grownups trying to keep us

kids busy suggest we look out at the shadows our flashlights made on the opposite

canyon wall. Many happy hours were spent as we made hand puppet shapes with

our fingers and flashlights. I remember rabbits, flying birds, things chasing things,

snakes, etc. and how our hands glowed red when we held the flashlights up to

them.

Remember if you get the chance to travel to Havasupai, get your

reservations early; don’t take too much stuff, that the squirrels are determined.

Don’t forget a towel, your bathing suit and an inflatable pool mattress. Most of all

you need a camera for taking pictures of the magical light in the travertine pools

and waterfalls, silhouetted against the towering red cliffs of the Grand Canyon.

You’ll need those picture,s because no words can describe it.