Karletta planned a trip to visit the Havasu and other falls and sent an invitation to the Stanford Tucson Alumni listserv. David and I decided we would like to go and contacted her. Since the three of us were the Tucson contingent, we carpooled up to Peach Springs, AZ. Peach Springs is an old route 66 town, but this area is home of the Hualapai tribe, the “People of the Tall Pine”. Friday night we stayed with Joey Flies Away (Stanford Alumni and Chief Judge of Hualapai), who would hike down with us on Saturday. Karletta's sister met us here.
Saturday morning we got a VERY early start since it was 68 miles to Hualapai Hilltop, the start of our adventure. On the drive there we saw deer and elk and other animals. At Hilltop, Joey deposited his bag with the packers, we posed for pictures, and then started the descent, 1000 feet in 1 mile (after that, it was gentler). The hike in was not too bad and we saw very few people because most people hike in Friday evening. After 8 miles, we arrived in Supai village (http://www.havasupaitribe.com/aboutus.html, http://www.indianaffairs.state.az.us/tribes/havasupai.html) and checked in for camping by the falls. We had lunch at the one restaurant in town and then continued hiking to the falls and the campground. We set up our tent and then went to enjoy the Havasu Falls for a few hours. Meanwhile, Karletta and Pauletta continued hiking toward Mooney and Beaver Falls. The water was rather cold for Stacy, but plenty of people did not seem to mind the temperature. We then hiked to Mooney Falls. This hike involved tunnels, chains and ladders - not for those afraid of heights. We then made dinner and went to bed.
Click here for the pictures of the hike in to Havasu Falls.
Click here for the pictures of Mooney Falls through hike out.
Click here for Karletta's pictures.
In the morning, we were very alone in the campground. All the large groups had hiked out in the middle of the night so as to beat the heat. There were mounds of gear stacked for the packers to carry to the top. We visited Havasu Falls again to catch the morning light. Much to our suprise and pleasure, we were alone at the falls. After decamping, we began hiking back to Supai Village. Along the way, we stopped to see Navajo Falls which did not lend itself to swimming but was probably the prettiest of the falls we saw all weekend. In Supai, we ate at the restaurant again and watched the helicopter make several roundtrips to Hilltop and back - carrying about 8 people at a time and items such as brooms, monitors and backpacks. We started hiking back to Hilltop and were told that Karletta and Pauletta had left ahead of us. After about 5 or 6 miles we caught up with them. Unfortunately, we hiked much faster than we anticipated and came to the steep part of the hike in full sun instead of the clouds and breeze that began about a half hour after we got to the top. The hike out was not too bad, except that last mile where we had to go from the bottom of the canyon to the top. After dropping Joey off in Peach Springs, we then drove all the way back to Tucson.