Havasupai Falls

7/2/11-7/4/11 Arizona

Day 2

5:00am

Surprisingly we woke without an alarm just fifteen minutes before the sunrise over the Grand Canyon, we quickly drove over to the rim, climbed out to our favorite photo rock, and started snapping away. Sunrise over the canyon is just as indescribable as sunset, reds, yellows, tourists. With the weather forecasting temperatures in the 100s down in the canyon we did not idle. Packed up the car and we were off. Little did we know that the hour drive we anticipated from the south rim to the Supai trailhead was in fact a three hour drive way out of our way with heavy backtracking.
I suppose a little information about our next stop is in order. We are going to the Havasupai Indian reservation located about 8 miles down into the Grand Canyon. Havasupai literally translates into "The People of the Green Water" because of the incredible amount of lime that gets picked up by the river running through their land. This lime calcifies everything in the river, rocks, trees, leaves and moss. Which helps give the water it's incredible vibrant green/blue color, and creates the most incredible rock formations. National Geographic declared Havasupai Falls "The greatest swimming hole in the world."

11:00am

On the trail down into the canyon, and we are surprised that there are not many people around, which may be a good thing when we get to the falls. The trail starts out as a series of switchbacks leading deep into the canyon for one mile and 1000ft of elevation loss. Upon reaching the bottom we almost immediately found ourselves in a dry riverbed with stunning red 500ft sheer cliffs on either side of us. This continued for the next seven miles through the canyon, and got a little bit mundane aside from the occasional burro carrying supplies passed us or helicopter sped overhead.
By the time we reached the village of Supai we were exhausted. (Keep in mind we are carrying forty-five pound packs) The town was not what we expected, pretty run down, old horses, old people and dust. It really felt like stepping back in time. We stopped by the village store after checking in, and got ourselves some cold Gatorade and an ice cream sandwich for lunch, then continued the last two miles to the falls.

3:00pm

The past two days have been so spectacular, full of sunsets and rises, cliffs and canyons. But nothing could have prepared me for the beauty that are the Havasupai falls, pictures don't do justice. The main waterfall is a turquoise green cascading from the most intense red canyon rock into a crystal pool of blue. We quickly made camp, changed into our swimwear and headed back up to the falls. The water temperature is perfect, and the number of people even better. Only a few folks swimming, and a few others snapping pictures. While swimming around at the base of the waterfall Zach spotted a rope sticking out from the rock behind it. Of course we had to investigate. Swimming back behind the fall is one of the hardest things I've ever done, because of the massive amount of water that is practically coming down on your head, pushing you into the rock, or worse, under it. "I AM SPARTICUS!" I made it up onto the ledge behind the falls, the water actually was flying up and creating a sort of wind tunnel, you could spit and it would fly twenty feet out the side of the fall.
We swam for about three hours and decided to head back to camp. Unfortunately I made the mistake of going barefoot in the falls and my toes got all torn up on the calcified rock. I'll have to wear my hiking boots in from now on. We got back to the camp and decided to continue on and explore further down the canyon. We came to the end of the campground about half a mile down, and shortly after came to the top of Moonie Falls. This was a big one! Several hundred feet of sheer cliff into another blue-green pool. We had to get to the bottom so we continued down the trail, which suddenly got steep and rocky. It continued to get steeper and steeper until we came to a warning sign "Proceed at your own risk". Bah! We figured, this was easy so far why not continue. Looking around we were a bit baffled, the trail was gone, and there was a big cave going almost straight down into the rock. That couldn't be, but it was! We descended into the darkness, checking our footing as we made our way down the steep stairs. About 50ft of this and we came out onto a ledge with chain guards and we were that much closer to the falls. Another steep cave descent, and we popped out some 100ft above the water. We almost considered turning back, as what lay ahead of us was a straight down climb with nothing but chains, and some loose footholds cut into the rock. I felt like Indiana Jones at this point. We gathered our courage and started the climb down, which got more and more slippery as we got closer to the spray from the waterfall. It was all worth it! The view from the bottom was incredible, as well as the other three small falls just down the river. We will definitely be coming back out here to swim tomorrow.
It was getting dark so we returned to the campsite to grab a bite to eat, when Zach had a brilliant idea. How about we take a light behind the waterfall when it's dark dark out. Great, now I get to be photography assistant and swim out in the pitch black into the torrent behind the falls. This sounded like a great idea, so I changed back into my trunks, waterproofed my flashlight (ziplock bags) and headed out. We arrived with still a small amount of light from sunset, and Zach used this time to find the best angle, lens and exposure, so I wouldn't have to be back there for to long. We used his camera flash as a signal to go out and return. This was by far the hardest thing I had to to today. Swimming without light, unable to see handholds on the rock, being battered by what seemed to be three times as much water as earlier in the day. I felt like I was in an ocean storm, my ship wrecked and my body smashed into the rocks. I finally made my way up onto the ledge, almost getting sucked under in the process, and shined my light as high as I could into the back of the fall, I felt like I was in the storm signaling for help. This lasted about ten minutes before Zach gave me the signal to come back, so I jumped into the back of the fall, which is a great time, the water hits you and tosses you out about twenty feet away.
Back to camp and to bed, what a long perfect day. Now to just sleep under the stars and listen to the river. This is the most beautiful place I've ever visited.

Day 3:

I've walked a mile in another mans shoes. (Two actually) after the fiasco of yesterday and my lack of water shoes I made it my quest to find some sort of foot protection for the day. Within the first few hours of the morning milling around the camp and wandering upstream I was blessed with an old discarded size 11 pair of water shoes. They required a bit of repair but they made due, and gave my feet a much needed rest. We started off the morning with a quick breakfast before Zach headed up river to snap some photos before everyone started playing in the water. He was gone for roughly an hour, during which I cleaned up camp and had myself some quiet reading time. Unfortunately my reading time was interrupted by an evil fat little ground squirrel who decided to eat his way through Zachs' brand new pack into his trial mix.
We had a quick swim in the fall closest to our camp before heading back up trail about a mile to Supai waterfall used more by the locals, who incidentally remind me of Samoans. This fall is about 30ft tall with the deepest pool beneath it, it is also the widest of the waterfalls, which makes it perfect for jumping off of. Both of us had a grand time leaping into the aqua waters below despite the fear of dying. Supai falls also had the largest amount of space behind it for leaping and diving.
The rest of the early afternoon was spent wandering around Mooney Falls exploring the series of little falls below it until about 3:00 when the weather suddenly changed. Within only a few minutes the sky went from sun and blue to grey with thunder, while dropping temperature rapidly. We knew this meant rain was coming so we scrambled back up the chains and ran back to camp just as it started to pour. Our timing was perfect as we were able to get everything into the tent and have time to be able to enjoy the weather. Of course this much rain in a dry canyon means possible flash flooding so we went up to the cliff above Havasu Falls to watch the storm play out. Fortunately we didn't have any flash flooding, but we did get the opportunity to witness the birth and death of a waterfall high on the cliffs above us.
By this time the sun was dropping and we were still soaked to the bone, so we headed back to camp, dried off. Best we could, and went to bed. Until about 2:00am i woke up to Zach having a bit of a sleep walking adventure, he apparently thought it smart to go sleep out in the mud without a shirt on. He doesn't remember this happening.

Day 4:

Woke up early, packed, and headed up trial. We made pretty good time getting back up to the parking lot, about 5 hours. Considering the time it took to climb the last mile. Straight up with a 35lb pack. We had some Gatorade in the parking lot and drove back to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Showered, ate, slept.

(I've decided to post all of the pictures at the end of the blog due to text being covered up by them on some computers. Also I apologize if my grammar or typing is a bit off from time to time, I'm blogging this on my iPad keyboard.)

MILEAGE:

Driving-
This trip: 392
Total: 857

Hiking:
This trip: 27
Total: 49