Havasupai Trek

There were three of us (Shish, Cookie & I) that ended up taking this adventure head on, and we were all extremely thrilled to have had the experience. Havasupai Canyon and the multiple falls are a little bit of paradise in the absolute middle of nowhere.

The last town (civilization) is Seligman, a neat little village on old Route 66. From there it is 30 miles of nothing to the turn off onto Indian 18. Then it is 60 miles of quite beautiful, but again virtually nothing to reach the Hualapai Hilltop parking lot. You are finally at the launching point for the adventure.

From the Hualapai Hilltop it is about 1.5 miles down hill, then 4.5 miles down Hualapai Canyon, make a left into Havasu Canyon for 2 miles to the remote village of Supai. Supai is the only patch of civilization that exists, as described above, for virtually a hundred miles. Supai should be the definition of 'remote'.

From Supai it is another 2 miles to the campground, passing Navajo Falls and Havasu Falls.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but from Hualapai Hilltop to Supai and/or onto the campgrounds, the only mode of transportation is by foot (yours or horse) or helicopter.

We chose by foot (ours) ... and backpacking all of our food and gear in for 4 days/3 nights. If we do it again ... we'll hike in and have the horses pack our food and gear in. We definitely had the horses pack our gear back out.

- Itinerary -

Sun - Spent the night before the hike at Grand Caverns Inn ... closest lodging (64 miles) to the Hill Top.

Mon - Day 1 Photos - Arose at 5:45am, ate at the Caverns Restaurant, drove to the trail head. Left the trail head at 9am ... didn't get to the campground until 5pm. Yes, that was eight hours ... we are not as young as we used to be and we hiked our packs in, didn't use the horse/mule trains ... but we got there before dark

Tue - Day 2 Photos - In the morning we went down and experienced the 'chutes and ladders' (the real life kids game) of Mooney Falls ... completely exhilarating. In the afternoon we went up to the Havasu Falls, sat in the cool waters (64 degrees) ... very refreshing for the legs and feet.

Wed - Day 3 Photos - Went back down to the 'chutes and ladders' of Mooney Falls went downstream to just past the first stream crossing. Turned around and thoroughly explored the entire area back up to Mooney Falls. Found the top and bottom of the little falls of the beautiful little creek that comes in from the side canyon.

Thu - Day 4 Photos - Arose at 5:45am, ate, completed packing up the camp site and headed up corrals at the head of the campground. Left our backpacks for the horse/mule train to take out (we learned from our trip in). We left the campground at 7:50am and reached the Hill Top at 2:20.

Eight hours to get in with our backpacks ... six and half hours to get out with just our day packs. We're not speedy, but we enjoyed the entire trip.

Mooney Falls' Chutes and Ladders. Getting into Mooney Falls (at least for us) was very heart and lung acceleratingly ... I'm sure due to the adrenaline rush. We did it twice, but it really got our hearts and lungs going each time. We spoke with the REI guide at one point and I expressed that I wouldn't want his job when it came to getting clients up and down at Mooney. The REI guide's eyes basically lit up and he smiled with glee and rubbed his hands and stated, 'that's when the fun starts'. He said that he gets to 'spider man' up or down the chutes and ladders and 'leapfrog' over people to get to the person in trouble ... 'give them a hug' and tell them that it is 'ok' and they will make it. He stated that he has had grown men cry ... I can believe it ... very thrilling and exciting. My wife is only 5' 1" and some of those 'steps' of the ladder thoroughly go to the extreme limit of her physical ability to reach. But we did do it twice ... intentionally

Trail Dogs. Yes, there are numerous 'trail' dogs. At both the trail head and in the camp site. Don't know the policy, nor the norm regarding feeding them ... we never fed them. All of them, on an individual basis, seemed quite nice ... we never petted any of them. We never felt threatened by them either, we basically just ignored them.

Horse/Mule Train. We packed in our backpacks ... and had the pack animals take them out. Next time we'll have them pack them IN and out. The advantage of using the horses to haul your gear in/out rather than the helicopter is that the horse trains go all the way to the head of the campground. If you choose to use the helicopter you have to pack it the distance (2 to 2.5 miles) from the village to the campground and back yourself, the trek past Havasu Falls (serious elevation change) would probably be the biggest reason to just leave it to the pack animals. I saw a few people packing there stuff out, but the MAJORity of the people leave it to the pack animals.