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Published: April 8th 2007
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Loaded up in the morning and drove the nearly three hours to the Havasu Canyon trailhead, west of the National Park. We prepared for the 10-mile descent to the campground, and took off, as it was already afternoon. The trail down is switchbacked for the first mile or so and then levels out as you follow a canyon all the way down to the village. We were passed by 3-4 groups of horses (loaded up with supplies and lazy people’s backpacks) but saw very few people. By the time we reached the river, our feet were quite sore from all the downhill and Shane became irritable (hard to imagine). Lauren and Devon’s spirits remained unperturbed and we made it to Supai village soon enough. The springtime greenery down around the village was most welcome and all the Cottonwoods were shedding their seeds, so it looked almost like snow on the ground. Supai village was a collection of 30-40 houses and town buildings and tons of horses and burros. A pretty idyllic spot for a village. We hiked the last 2 miles to the campground, getting our first glimpses of Navajo and Havasu Falls. As Devon put it “Oh my God”.
The river water was bright turquoise….the exact color of a flavor of Kool-Aid I used to enjoy but cannot remember the name of. The walls of the falls look like deep red drizzled sand. Absolutely surreal. While we had not seen many folks to this point, we discovered the campground was quite packed, but we crossed the river and found a nice picnic table away from the masses. A chorus of frogs soon began, which my sister dubbed the Chewbacca frogs, on account of the wacky calls. The bottle of Dark Master was brought out, and we all slept very easily.
We decided to check out Mooney Falls first thing the next day, which was less than a mile from our campsite. The trail down to the Falls was insane….we went through a couple of short tunnels and down some vertical cliffwalls assisted by metal chains, bars, and ladders. The rock formations around the 100 foot falls made them all the more impressive. A troop of Scouts was already down and frolicking in the pools, which were rather chilly. It was a child’s paradise of cascades and rope swings and the like, and all the adults seemed a bit
more child-like in this place too. Devon and Lauren (who never grew up to begin with) posed for some pictures, including a request for “two dragons.” After admiring the scene for a bit, we hiked a couple miles down canyon, where the path gets a lot more narrow and vegetated. We passed another great rope swing and countless beautiful spots and cascades. As we didn’t leave the campsite in the morning all that prepared….we were all in sandals and had one bottle of water between us, we opted to head back. Shane enjoyed a refreshing dip in the waterfall pool and we ascended back up the cliff. Devon proclaimed us official Goonies. We’re still not sure how the large woman with the cane made it down (maybe we missed the elevator?). Though we didn’t see her at the campground - she could still be down there… Back at our campsite we marveled at the squirrel that had managed to unzip and steal a banana out of Devon’s pack (and strew our garbage around, little devil). The rest of the day proceeded rather lazily with some lounging and reading at Havasu Falls on a little grassy beach. These Falls are equally
impressive and the swimming pool even larger. Played a lot of Hearts, UNO (my sister dominated), and other games to pass the evening. The winner (and losers) were awarded Dark Master, which was killed by nights end. We seem to polish off a bottle whenever Dev-O visits, and she’s amassing a picture collection of bottles from pretty places, to which we happily contributed.
Day Three was deemed a lazy day, and Devon and Shane hiked back up to Navajo Falls (between campground and village) first thing in the morning and had the Falls all to themselves. The river erupted from all over the place, pouring in dozens and dozens of cascades through the trees and rocks and everywhere you looked. Shane declared them his favorite spot in the canyon. We collected Lauren and spent most of the day lounging back at Havasu Falls….we had the grassy side beach all to ourselves for almost the entire time, until an unruly gang of obnoxious jock-types came over to splash around and annoy us. We took that as our cue to leave, as we had all had several swims in the pool and hungered for mac ‘n cheese. The campground seemed more
empty on night 3; there are no campfires allowed, so nights are really quiet as soon as it gets dark, even when its packed in the campground, so that was nice. The chorus of frogs….and sleep.
Woke up Easter Sunday to find the Easter Bunny does NOT visit Havasu campground. We didn’t want to leave, but reluctantly packed up and were on the trail before 7. We saw a couple kids with Easter baskets in the village, so apparently that damn bunny didn’t want to hop his ass down to the campground…..lazy lagomorph. We cruised on the hike back up, despite some blisters, and made it to the hilltop by 11. Took a victory photo (with the blasted helicopter in the background, which gets you an 8-minute ride to the village) and headed back to Flagstaff (and the fabled breweries). After stopping for refreshments and Pringles, we arrived in Flag and selected the prestigious Highlander Country Motel. Showered and headed for the Beaver Street Brewery before 5 pm. Proceeded to order pitchers and mass amounts of food…..delicious. Our friends Casey (from VT) and Sam joined us for pitcher #3 and walked us back to the motel. We slept well.
Spent the next day exploring Flagstaff, mainly sticking to the artist galleries and Native American art shops. Bought some cool local wares, bored Shane to tears with the hours of shopping, and once he finally gave up on us, Devon and Lauren hit up the Flag Brewery for a couple afternoon beers. Then got inspired to see Blades of Glory (again), since we’d had the classic tune “Stroke me, stroke me” in our head from that damn movie for the entire week. Next day made our way down to Phoenix, where we had to deposit Devon at the airport at 9pm. We found the D’backs stadium and bought tickets for the game that night, then wandered the area. Mostly a business-oriented downtown, so there wasn’t much to do but hop into Hard Rock Café for a drink, then walked around for a while and ended up, of all places, at Hooters (they had the best happy hour in town). Could only handle one drink there before the 1970s-inspired outfits in all their embarrassing glory got the best of us, despite Shane weakly trying to defend their timelessness. We looked for a spot for dinner, eventually ending up at a
Mexican place (can’t remember the name, but Lauren got sick from it the next day, so wish I could - assuming the beers and Jagermeister didn’t have anything to do with the mysterious illness). Made it to the game just on time (after stopping for a round of thimble-sized, $8 Jager shots at the ballpark bar…what a bargain!), and enjoyed that for a couple of hours before having to take Devon to the airport. We were sad to see her go, it was a memorable week!
After goodbyes, drove the few hours to Casey, Sam, and Ruby’s house in Flagstaff, where we leached off their kindness for almost a week. Shane was a champ working on manuscript revisions, which he victoriously resubmitted, and we otherwise were pretty lazy, enjoying a warm place to stay as it snowed and was generally cold and crappy out all week. Had much fun visiting with them, as they finish up their time in Flag and get ready for a summer in Alaska. Had a delicious 4-course sendoff dinner to celebrate Casey finishing her teacher qualifying exam, Shane finishing his paper, and Sam having a wonderful girlfriend (i.e., Casey).
Headed from there to southern Utah,
details to come…
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Anne
non-member comment
Wowwwwww
It looks like paradise! Enjoying reading you so much... Missing both of you even more! Do you have a mailing address I could send some pictures for when you get to Vermont/Connecticut? Anne xx