Havasupai

This adventure was unreal!

I have seen pictures for this hike for a few years now and have always wanted to go. It is really difficult to get a permit, but we thought we'd give it a try.

DaNae and I both called several billion times, with no avail. A few weeks later a mutual friend of ours called DaNae and asked if she would like to buy 4 permits from her. 

Booyah!!!

DaNae was kind enough to invite me, and she knew my mom would love to do this hike so she invited her also. There was an extra permit, so I asked my sister, Mavis, if she would be interested. She was, and that was finalized.  YAY!

We wanted to get to the trail head a night in advance so we could get on the trail while it was still cool. This meant camping an extra night. When we arrived at the parking lot for the trail, we were blown away by how many people were there.  It was so overcrowded, and there was nowhere to set up a tent, so we had to sleep in my van.

It was crazy uncomfortable, and hardly anyone slept a wink, but at least we got to start early ;) .

Here we go... packs packed and headed to the trail head.

(Mom is eating cheesecake that we didn't finish from the night before.

Breakfast of champions.)

Our view from the top

showing of her brute strength...

The switchbacks (about the first 2 miles,) were a beast, but the rest of the trail in was beautiful, and the time of day made the weather just about perfect.

 After about 5 miles we saw a sign pointing us to the Supai village

This was our first sight of any water, and it was an absolutely gorgeous sight!

 

The rocks surrounding us reminded me of radiator springs, from Cars.

This was my first glance of Havasu falls...

As we looked for the perfect camp sight, my mom waited in one spot to hold it. After finding something else, I returned to tell her, only to find her fast asleep.

This was our little tent set up... 

(until my mom decided she would rather sleep in a hammock.)

Fun bridge crossing

A panoramic shot of Havasu falls

This is my mom swimming at the base. We all jumped in, and found the water to be a tad cold, but highly refreshing!!!

We scored a perfect spot for lunch on this pic-nic table in the middle of the water.

It was awesome!

 

After lunch, we hiked the 2 miles back up to the village to check it out. 

After grabbing a cold soda in the village we headed back to camp.  On the way back, we decided to stop at a few of the falls on the side of the trail.

 Upper Navajo falls offered some great mists

 

While lower Navajo, let us actually get behind it.

(Can you see her?)

After exploring the falls, we were all a little hungry so we headed back to start our dinner.

On the way back, Mavis got caught up in some prickly bushes, and as DaNae offered to help her out, she got a splinter.

My mom is an expert at getting those things out, so she went to work, and I offered to hold the supplies.

Always stumbling upon beautiful cacti

 As we neared the camp ground, we took a detour to venture to to top of Havasu falls.

The photo on the left is the view looking out from the top, and on the right is the view looking down.

After a good nights rest, we decided our next adventure would be down the ladders to Mooney and Beaver falls.

Getting down to the base of the falls, was a little tricky, but there were plenty of rocks to hold onto, so we were fine.

                     

                        We had to go down that hole.

 

Once we reached the bottom, we were all smiles.

 After admiring Mooney falls for just a moment, we headed down river for a beautiful hike to Beaver falls

 (lots of lizards.)

This was Beaver falls. There were actually several little falls that cascaded, and it was beautiful!

 There were too many pictures to include, but they were all wonderful

And as they say, or maybe as I say... what goes down must eventually come up.

Here's my mom poking out of the hole after finishing climbing the ladders. 

Back at camp I took a moment to relax in the hammock.

Pretty comfy!

As we left on day 4, we decided to send our packs out with Mavis on a helicopter. (Yes, a helicopter. A glorious $20.00 luxury that we all splurged for.) 

None of us wanted to miss the hike out but our packs might've made it a little miserable, so Mavis sacrificed and took all of our gear and made sure it got on the chopper... besides our water of course.

(This is the copter carrying our gear. Because the copter service didn't start until about 2 hours after we started hiking, we reached the top at about the same time. It was awesome.)

Lots of wild horses and donkeys on the trail.

 And this cool huge rock with little holes for lots of cool little rocks.

 After hiking for about 10 miles we finally reached the base of the switchbacks. 

As we began our ascent, there happened to be a giant cloud, that blocked the sun for us, and sprinkled on us, nearly the entire way to the top. What a tremendous blessing. I had never been so happy for a rain cloud in my life! It was as though God was whispering "I love you," as he gave me a big ole' hug.

This adventure was hard to get into, (literally, and figuratively,) but it was so worth the hike. If there weren't millions of other people there, it would've been one of my favorite adventures of all time.

I always enjoy spending time with my DaNae, but this trip I especially enjoyed spending the time with my mom and sister. 

I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with a working body, and that my sweet husband is always so willing to let me go and enjoy God's creations.