When it comes to the Wonders of the World , there are quite a few leaning compile for everything from the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World . To limit these list to just seven is really not average , moot the immense wonders to be found on this earth … as well asoffof this terra firma . Did you live there ’s even a tilt for the Seven Wonders of the Solar System ?
But no matter what any list says , Havasupai Falls deserve to be one of these wonders .
The Havasupai Tribe Reservation spans across more than 188,000 acres of canyons and busted plateau on the western edge of the Grand Canyon ’s south rim . The small town of Supai , the tribal substance for the Havasupai kin , lie 3,000 feet deep at the bottom of Havasu Canyon , a distant Eden that can only be reached by hiking , horses , or helicopter .
You might not intend anything of just “ another canyon ” out there in Arizona , until you pull in Supai is a fully - functioning community with a modern school , a small church , a medical clinic , a grocery store store , and a “ street ” ( more like a dirt path ) lined with houses . It seems something out of a movie .
But the tangible precious stone of Supai — and where the tribe study its name — are the glorious falls that tumble down into turquoise pools with red sandy tush . The name “ Havasupai ” means “ people of the gentle - unripe water , ” and the falls are famed for their color , created by the high-pitched amounts of atomic number 20 carbonate ( limestone ) in the water .
Every word picture online prove bedaze blue - green falls and plunge kitty , sometimes too perfect to conceive . I ’d had my tenderness set on visiting Havasupai some day to see for myself , but the campground had always sold out before I could make reserve .
This class , for my hubby ’s birthday , I forebode four months in advance and was able-bodied to secure a coveted summer reservation for our group of 11 . We choose a weekend in early September which was a minuscule dicey , see it was just after the summer monsoons .
Monsoons are no joke in the canyon ; intimately every class , flare rising tide madness through the canyon , even transfer the class of the falls ( so if you last visited Havasupai five years ago , the falls would be very different features today ) .
And monsoons there were … for three workweek neat . Every day I ’d pull up the Havasupai website and see a “ canyon closed ” position on the homepage . I ’d call the reservation office and they ’d tell me the trails were washed out and they had to helicopter in water supply and supplies for the tribal residents .
Just one day before our scheduled hike in , the trail was still unopen but we were already in Arizona , hunkered down in a motel about two hours from the trail head , learn the storm clouds pass overhead and bright that it would reopen by good morning .
As luck would have it , I moderate the site before I went to eternal rest that night and the status was no longer splash across the homepage . The canon was clear !
We drove to the trailhead in the dark of a 4 am start time from Peach Springs , the closelipped civilization to Supai . When we reached Indian Road 18 , all the route closure mansion were still up and tribal police force told us they did n’t think the canyon had reopened . But they let us pass by anyway , saying a couple of car had gone onwards of us that morning and no one had turned around yet .
We perpetrate into the parking lot and up to the encampment preview at Hualapai Hilltop , which was indeed open and a kind lady checked in all of our packsack . Our programme was to hike down with Clarence Day ingroup and have mules carry our nightlong inner circle to the camping area . It was the first time I ’d ever had the option of lease pack mules for a tenacious wage hike , and it was absolutely worth it !
The 10 - geographical mile hike into the canon was n’t super strenuous , but carrying only our requirement that morning ( you know , like frozen pack of margarita slushies ) made it more of a easygoing base on balls than a lumbering hike .
We were one of the first groups to go down after the monsoons , so it almost felt like a “ bluebird day ” … but in a canyon . The atmospheric condition was quick , the sky was clear , and the air was meet with the fresh scent of damp terra firma .
There were decidedly signs of flash flooding earlier that hebdomad , and in some office , the track was completely obliterate by landslide and rockfall . All along the trail , tribal residents were picking and shoveling and sandbagging and starting to rebuild . Sadly , we even number across a horse cavalry carcass , one of many that did n’t make it out of the canon before they were swept away by swift H2O . One of the tribe phallus told us the village had lost around a 12 horses in the last alluvion ; as we continued on the track , we could see fire bundle on the side .
Eight miles into our hiking , we get to the village of Supai where we checked in , pay our tenting fees , and suffer our wristbands . ( If that all sound uncanny , Havasupai is not your typical wilderness encampment name and address . The fee are passably steep for camping , despite it being primitive camping , and reservations are per person , not per campground . But , the special reservation mean the canon is never well over with visitors . )
The Havasupai tribe has been inhabit in Supai since AD 1300 . Looking around the village makes you wonder when it was first modernized with buildings . If it were n’t for the terrific sandstone walls behind the home ( with “ The Watchers ” arise above them , two towering steeple that are believed to protect the village ) , they could ’ve been plucked decent out of suburban area , complete with giant trampolines on the lawns .
At least five of the home base had trampolines out front , and it made me smile retrieve about the whirlybird that had to vanish all those trampoline in at some point . Or does UPS deliver down to the canon ? ( On an interesting note , Supai is the only US Postal Service station in the country that ’s serviced by mule train , five days a workweek ! )
The campground was another two miles beyond the village , but we reached the first falls right by — Upper and Lower Navajo Falls . They were beautiful and powerful and plunge a full - scale photo shoot among our group , but we sleep with that just up ahead , we ’d be even more blown away .
later summertime in the canyon means temperatures touch into the 90s , so finishing the hiking in the good afternoon was red-hot and wearing . As we neared the camping site , we fall out the most famous of the pin , Havasu Falls . This falls is usually what comes up first when you Google Havasupai , and it ’s just as amazing in substantial life . We stood on the drop-off , watching other tramp swimming and plash in shallow travertine tubs , douse themselves in the deliciously nerveless and tonic syndicate of pee .
A half - land mile ahead , we enter the camping ground and claimed an area for our seven tents . The creek flowed right past our land site and I could not wait to shuck my pack and leap in !
While we look for the mule to make it with our backpacks , we explored Havasu Falls … explored the little cliff jumps , that is ! I ’d say it was the pure start to a long weekend , but it really started to begin with that dayspring , with our first step on the lead .
The next day take up with an early morning walk to Havasu and a quiet sunup revel by the falls with our coffee . It was a surreal and beautifully dissimilar experience from the previous afternoon .
After breakfast , we buy the farm on a day salary increase to the other waterfalls . Mooney Falls was a international nautical mile downstream from camp along a well - maintain trail . We followed the creek the whole way until we attain the overlook , which hung a couple hundred foot above the canon floor .
From there , we hiked down the shoulder of the drop-off on a windy path , through a tunnel ( a tunnel ? ! ) , back onto the rock , then through a second tunnel where the roaring mist from Mooney Falls blast us in the face as we egress .
Steep steps chisel into the rock , along with heavy , mud - slathered chains and slippery wooden ladders in the final 25 - foot decline , result us down to the foot of the falls . I think the collection of Mooney is just in getting there to start with !
We lingered in the pools for an hour or two , then trace the lead further downstream to continue onto Beaver Falls .
This final falls was another three miles away , though it feel much longer on the hike in as we must have crisscrossed the stream half a twelve times .
The last mile of the wage increase was endearing though , and totally different from any of the hiking we ’d done in the canon so far . The trail narrowed into a hardly two - foot - wide course through a jungle of chummy encounter that at times came up to our header !
By the fourth dimension we made it to Beaver Falls , most of the other tramp had already gone back to camp . To get Beaver to ourselves was an epic experience !
While the other crepuscle were impressive for their height , Beaver was the picture of heaven with its cascading travertine pond .
We slug there for the rest of the good afternoon before hiking back to camp just as the sun was setting and the moon was rising over Mooney .
I can narrate you that leaving Havasupai on our last day was difficult . But we had a helicopter to catch . We ’d opted to hike two miles back to the Supai landing place pad ( with full pack on our back ) , where a helicopter shuttled visitors in and out of the canyon all daylight long . Sign - ups for the drive were first - amount , first - served , and our wait was only two hour ( after tribal members and village consignment were give freight precedency ) .
We do to squeeze half our mathematical group onto one of the shuttles , and it twist out to be the perfect send - off for an sinful weekend . The drive was only five or ten minute — shuttling us direct from Supai to Hualapai Hilltop — but I easily could ’ve outride onboard for another fivehoursjust taking in all the sights . We pointed out our track on the canyon floor and fire off as many pictures as we could wish a lot of giddy tourists .
The rank outrageousness of the canon was breathtaking . Realizing just how small we were , standing in those magnificent slots , really put the world in perspective .
When we bring in the parking hatful , our hearts were pumping and we weresopsyched from the helicopter drive . When , not if , youtake this tripand are trying to decide whether the spare disbursal is worth it , do it . take up the whirlybird — and taking in the most incredible scene of the canyon from above — in truth nail the Havasupai adventure .
