Havasu Canyon :: Day 2

The next morning after some fruit, a grilled cheese and hard-boiled eggs, we continued north along the creek about 5 miles where the blue waters of Havasu Creek meet the brown force that is the Colorado River. Being along the banks on the Grand Canyon you begin to think just how powerful and unforgiving nature can be and how everything else in life means very little at that moment. Time slowly salts away the earth and all that is in it and at that moment I felt a sense of oneness with my surroundings.
After a brief stay at the Colorado River, we made our way back to our camp at Beaver Falls. We decided to head back to where we had stayed the first night outside of Supai to give ourselves a head start on the trek back to the car the following morning. After making the climb back up Mooney Falls through the miner's tunnel, we refilled our CamelBacks and Nalgenes at a spring and headed towards the village of Supai. As we walked through the village, the sun was setting and local people were returning to their homes for the night. I passed by a small boy and said "what's up little man?" He didn't say anything, just laughed as he grabbed onto my pack to slow me down. The entire day had been quite an experience and I couldn't help but feel guilty as we walked through the land this tribe shared with us, the American travelers whose ancestors had done so much to destory and confine their culture to small nooks and crannies throughout America.
We made camp outside of Supai and laid our packs out underneath the stars in Northern Arizona. Around 4 a.m, I awoke to rain drops smacking me in the face and suddenly the sky that was so full of stars was black and sullen. We hadn't packed in a tent since we were in a place that might get 2 inches of total rainfall all year outside the monsoon seasn in late July. So we decided to put the tarp we were sleeping on over us to prevent being completely soaked. Just before we had left for this trip, I picked up a new sleeping back at REI. Thankfully, the guy at REI told me that to get a synthetic bag instead of one made of down if I was ever going to get wet. I ended up getting the North Face Snowshoe, its rated for 0 F/ -17 C and turned out to be a really good buy at around $200. It stayed warm even though everything in that canyon was soaked at that point and helped me make it through the night.
At first light, we picked up and headed south back to the car at Hualapai Hilltop. Along the way, I saw what I wasn't able to see on the way in at night. The once isolated and remote canyon was now filled with candy bar wrappers and gatorade bottles. How people can come to place like this and leave their trash everywhere is beyond me. We did what we could to pick things up along the way, but the entire route looked more like an alley behind a 7-11 than a giant crack in the desert in Northern Arizona. After about a 3 hour hike, we made it up the steep switchbacks back to the car and dragged our exhausted bodies to Flagstaff for some Fajitas.

Havasu Canyon :: Day 1

We packed up and left Vegas after a night of blackjack and vodka tonics and headed down Route 66 to the Havasupai Indian Reservation. The reservation is on Navajo Highway 18 off of Route 66 between Kingman and Flagstaff, Arizona. Our destination was Havasu Canyon and the jade waters of Havasu Creek. After 60 miles on Highway 18 we ended up at the Hualapai Hilltop some 20 miles south of the Grand Canyon. The Hilltop descends down steep switchbacks for the first 1.5 miles and enters Havasu Canyon. We packed in: a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, some dry clothes, two pairs of wool socks, hiking boots, TEVAs (sandals) for water crossings, a first aid kit, propane fuel and stove, pocket knife or LeatherMan, lighter, CamelBacks and Nalegenes for water, apples, bananas, eggs (put them in a pot with clothes to protect them), raisins, bread, cheese, peanut butter (great energy food), couple cans of soup each, some pasta and spaghetti sauce, lots of granola bars, digital cameras, flashlights and headlamps, some headgear (hats and bandanas), some iodine tablets for water purification (always a good idea on strenuous treks in remote places), and TOILET PAPER. We decided not to pack in a tent and planned to sleep under the stars. This was fine until our last night when it ended up biting us in the ass. I picked up a basic 2 light LED headlamp by Petzl before the trip and for $22 its one of the best pieces of equipment I've ever bought. They have more powerful ones but this one got the job done in the pitch black. After packing up our gear, we started our hike around 7 p.m. Under the cover of darkness, we hiked 7 miles into the canyon just short of the village Supai and made camp against Havasu Creek. At 6 am. we picked up and hiked the last 3 miles to the first of a series of waterfalls along the creek, Havasu Falls. The pictures really do all the talking. Continuing down the trail we descended 200 feet through a miner's tunnel in the walls of Mooney Falls. Mooney hits the bottom with such force it sends spray for at least 50 feet in all directions. After following the meandering trail through brush, multiple creek crossings, and a steep cliff ascent, we set down for lunch and relaxation at Beaver Falls. I was constantly reminding myself as I sat there that even though I was in this remote place there were some 200 campers around and I had to look no further than an empty Chef Boyardee left behind sitting in a hole in the canyon rock next to me.
That night, we slept in Coyote Canyon just outside the tribal land in Grand Canyon Nat'l Park. After dinner and some pulls of SoCo, we set up our sleeping bags on a small ledge in the canyon. Thinking we were the only humans for miles, we began to see brief flashes of light on the canyon walls that appeared to be getting closer. In our haze we decided we were either about to be in a scene from Deliverence or attacked by angered natives. Thankfully it turned out to be crazed hikers on their way back to the campground and we were left to contemplate what the hell had just happened in the darkness of the canyon.

The Boulder 8

The purpose of the Boulder 8 is to explore the many different playgrounds of this planet, all the while promoting conservation, environmental consciousness and the many pleasures in life. This blog is intended to serve as documentation of the places, people, experiences and equipment involved in our excursions. One love.