Havasupai Falls Jun. 4, 2009

Last summer Grace and I visited Havasupai Falls with some friends and family and really had a great time. About a month later we heard that a dam broke near the falls and completely flooded it out! We were shocked at the news and questioned whether we would ever be able to visit the falls ever again. The news came that the flood caused a lot of damage and that it would never be the same again. It was closed to the public until the foreseeable future. We considered ourselves blessed that we could experience the true essence of the falls before the flood and also lucky that it did not break while we were down there. I never really expected to ever go back again; I thought that the flood destroyed it too much to ever go back.

Six months later Grace tells me that the tribal office is opening for calls to reserve spots for camping. So she wakes up at 6:30 and starts making calls the first available day until someone answers. Around 7:30 or 8 someone finally picks up the phone and Grace makes a reservation for 14 people. I couldn’t believe it; I never really thought we would be able to go back ever again. So after that Grace and I ask all of our friends and family who would like to go on this trip with us. There were a lot of people who said yes then bailed and had a lot of confusion of who was going to join us or not. Then finally we ended up with the final 12 confirmed to go. We had Grace and I, Claire, Mrs. Ballor, the Wombolt(spelling?) family with Mr. and Mrs. Wombolt and Cassy their daughter, Graces roommate Teresa from Pennsylvania, my roommate Jesse, our friend from Texas named Daniel, and the Bechter twins Andrew and Erik from Bermuda.

We were all set to go on Thursday June 4. We got work off Wednesday so we could get up to the trail head that night and get an early start in the morning. We were taking separate cars and leaving at different times because we had to wait for Daniel’s scheduled flight that was supposed to arrive at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. So Mrs. Ballor took a car up with Claire, Teresa, Jesse and the Bechters. Soon after they left I got a call that Daniel missed his flight and that the earliest flight was going to arrive at 7p.m. The only problem with this is that it takes 5 hours to drive to the trailhead. We made the decision to have him take the flight and come anyway. So Grace and I pick him up from his flight around 7 and we are finally on our way. The rest of our friends had already made it up there and prepared themselves to sleep in the parking lot before the hike in the morning. So Grace and I split up the driving a little bit and cranked it up the mountain through Flagstaff. The last stretch of the drive for about 15 miles while I was driving we saw about 60 elk crossings. When we saw the first one we were in awe and amazement. As we continued up the road they kept on coming more and more were crossing the road on both sides. Some families, some does and some bucks with huge racks it was really amazing. While we were in amazement, we were also annoyed because we really wanted to make it to the trail head but had to drive slow with caution. I ended up driving in the middle of the road because of all of the elk approaching from both sides. We finally made it to the parking lot around 1:30 a.m. We spotted our friends sleeping and set our alarms for 3:30 a.m.

I got up first, woke up Grace and Daniel and we got our stuff ready for the hike. We went over to Jesse and the gang and woke them up to get ready. After only about 2 hours of sleep I felt surprisingly good. So once everyone was ready we were on our way. The only thing is we originally wanted to leave by 4 to beat the sun and it was almost 5 by the time people were completely prepared. It was ok though because it was a beautiful day ahead of us. Pretty much about 5 minutes into the hike Jesse’s sleeping bag came undone and opened up every ware. We tried to roll it up again but ended up jimmy-rigging it to his bag with rope and straps. It was a mess! After that it was smooth sailing, there was a slight overcast perfect weather and good company. We kept a good pace through the canyon and made it to the town in about 4 hours. Teresa and the Bechters were about 20 minutes ahead of us the whole time and waited for us at the tribal office to check in. Once we made it to the office and got checked in I pulled out some homemade cookies Annie cooked for us and we ate some of them in celebration of arriving. With only 2 miles to go to make it to the falls we were pretty excited and went on our way. Once we were out of the town we started to see the damage of the flood. An entire canyon was created that wasn’t there before. From what I remember there were a lot of trees and hills where this huge hole was now. The flood created a whole new set of falls from its damage. It was closed to campers because of loose ground. I guess they didn’t prepare it in time for the first batch of campers for the summer.

We finally arrive to our destination! We hear the falls as we approach the last hill down to the campsites. And there it was Havasupai falls. We were really excited to be there but at first glance really sad and disappointed in how it changed from the flood. The Havasupai falls was about a quarter of its original size and our old waterfall shower spot was all dried up. We hiked down to the campsites and sent Jesse, Erik, and Andrew to find a spot for us to camp. While they were away naturally Grace and I were looking and focusing on all the changes in the area. The creek that use to run through the campsites was pretty much a small stream now and all the trees around were destroyed. We were all a little sad at the change but didn’t want it to ruin our trip. We especially didn’t want to disappoint all of our guests with complaints. Jesse and the twins came back and found the perfect camp site. They chose a spot further down the path closer to Mooney falls. As we approached our campsite the small stream we were disappointed in became bigger and bigger, and they picked out a spot for us to set camp near the water where it was close to its old size. After setting up camp it hit me, I was tired. The five hour drive, two hours of sleep, and 12 mile hike caught up to me. So I took a nap right next to the water for about 2 hours. I woke up feeling great! The Wombolts finally arrived and set up their camp right next to us. With the rest of the day ahead of us, me Grace and Cassy, Claire, and Jesse decided to go see Mooney falls to see if it was affected by the flood. We climbed down the canyon and were pleasantly surprised. Mooney falls was just the same as before. Accept for the pool underneath was a little smaller but we were still happy. We found our old rope-swing and went a little further down the stream than we did the last time we visited. We were pleasantly surprised to find a new spot to take our waterfall showers. After that we decided to head back to camp, it was dinner time. Before this trip I bought a water boiler called jetboil which I was really excited to try out. It boils two cups of water in 30 seconds! With the help of my new jetboil Grace and I had our dinner ready in no time. So we all hung out and ate together and then decided to call it a night and head to bed. Grace set up her hammock that she was so excited about and in the middle of the night asked me to switch with her because she was scared of being in the air. So I gladly let her sleep on my sleeping pad on the ground while I zonked out in her hammock.

The next morning we woke up and I made some oatmeal in my jetboil and tried to decide what our plans were for the day. Grace and I started to get anxious to go and explore but our friends wanted to wait for the sun to come over the canyon wall so they could sunbath. So Grace and I let them be and we went off with her mom and the Wombolts down to Mooney falls to explore it further. We trekked down the rock face to the bottom of the falls and enjoyed its beauty for a little while. We approached the falls as close as we could feel the power of the water pounding off of the pool after a 196 foot drop. After that we all traveled down the river with our water shoes passed our new waterfall shower and continued on. On our last trip to Havasupai we didn’t explore this far so it was a new to us. Through the water down small little waterfalls we continued on enjoying the beauty of the canyon and the life the clear blue water brings forth at the bottom. We spotted a rope swing and Claire and Mrs. Ballor tried it out. We met some people there who said that there was another set of big waterfalls called beaver falls about 4 miles down. We decided to continue on to maybe reach the falls. We found a path next to the water that we took on for the rest of the way down. The path turned into large fields of grape leaves for about a quarter of a mile. The adults decided that they wanted to turn back so we decided to do the same. Instead of taking the path back Grace, Cassy, and I chose to travel upstream and go back by water. We caught up to them at the rope swing where we found our other friends. Daniel, Erik, and Teresa were by the rope swing checking it out. Daniel and Erik flew off of it into the water with no problem. So Teresa gave it a try and didn’t let go. She tried again and let go too soon and landed on her feet. She tried again and finally made it! She wanted to get one more good jump in before we left so she got up again started to swing and fell to soon and banged her knee in the shallow water… Some nice campers helped us out and gave her some iodine and we started to head back up to Mooney falls. The guys decided to take a pit stop by our water shower and bath a little bit. While we were there we spotted a water snake which was pretty cool. We got back to camp and took a little afternoon nap. When we woke up we went down the Havasu falls and hung out down there until the sun went down.

The next day we spent most of our time down by Havasu falls and went swimming. The others found their perfect spot for tanning and soaked up the Arizona sun. Jesse spent most of this day using his dad’s special slr camera taking pictures of the falls and the scenery around. After a while we went back to camp had some lunch and relaxed a little bit by the water. Later on Claire took Grace, Teresa and I to a cave she found near our camp inside the canyon wall. We went inside with our flashlights and close to the entrance the walls were covered in spiders! It was like being in Indiana Jones! Grace and Teresa ran out of there but Claire and I went on. We made it to the end and turned back around. Someone said that it was an old mining shaft. The rest of the day we hung out near camp and waded in the water talked and had a good time with each other. We discussed plans on leaving in the morning, Claire, Mrs. Ballor, and the Wombolts decided to helicopter out of the canyon. The rest of us chose to do the hike again.

So, just as before we got up at 3:30 got our stuff packed and head out. We pushed ourselves out of the canyon and made such good time that we decided to make a drive to the Grand Canyon! So we left a note on Mrs. Ballor’s car and wrote down our plans. We made it up the canyon faster than they made it with the helicopter! (They also left a lot later). We started our drive, no elk this time so it was a smooth ride, listening to Teresa’s 6 burned cd over and over. We stopped at the route 66 diner for lunch and had some great burgers! After a nice lunch we headed out from there to the Grand Canyon. After the $25 entrance fee we made it to the rim. I had never been to the Grand Canyon before so I was pretty excited to see it. Once we stepped out onto the viewing platform I was breath taken I had never seen anything before that was so large and beautiful. Jesse and I went and climbed down some rocks to get a better view of the canyon. It was truly amazing.

We made it back to Tempe in time for a nice shower at home and mass at the Newman Center at 7:30. I reflected on our weekend in the canyon and was truly thankful for my experience. In the end I realized that the change in the canyon wasn’t so bad after all. I realized it wouldn’t be the way it was without giant floods to reface its shape. The changes also encouraged me to explore the canyon further. Who would have ever thought a place so beautiful could be in Arizona?