Havasupai

Ok this post is mostly for journaling purposes so I don't forget the crazy adventure, if you want the shortened version, scroll down to the captions under the pictures. Here is our adventure to Havasupai. For years Chris has been begging me to go with him to Havasupai. Me being the camping unenthusiest have really never had the desire but this year I decided to be brave and grin and bear it. So our adventure started on Thursday around 6 or 7 PM ( I'm not quite sure what time we left Fajitas). We got to the parking lot at the top of the Canyon at around midnight and the plan was to just sleep up there then hike the whole 10 miles down to the campground around 4 or 5 in the morning. Well we had the crazy idea to just start hiking right then. So we geared up and started the descent down the switchbacks. About halfway down the switchbacks we ran into some wild horses. Now I am terribly afraid of any kind of animal so this absolutely freaked me out, which got my adrenaline pumping, which is a good thing if its 1 in the morning and you are hiking in the dark ( we did have headlamps of course.) We made it past the wild horses, were bombarded by bats and moths and about 2 hours later, we found a little cave and set up tents. Of course no sleep was had because we swear we heard a gunshot right as we were about to close our eyes, and I just know that the wild animals were surrounding us. So 3 hours later, the sun was up and off we were to hike the rest of the way to the campground. When we got to the villiage, the office to pay at was closed so we just hiked the 2 miles down to the campground and set up. Then we went to Havasu falls ( I think that was the name) and played around for a while. Then back to camp, and a much needed 20 minute nap. Next we hiked a few miles up to the new falls, enjoyed a few jumps off of the waterfalls and headed to the village to pay. Then back down to camp and it got dark. We went to bed at about 7 PM and slept so good, it was soothing being right next to the river. I think we woke up about 6 and just laid around for a while. Then after breakfast we hiked a mile or so to Mooney falls. It was beautiful and we hiked down a sketchy cliff and the started our trek to beaver falls. Along the way we say these huge big horned sheep and I was freaked out because they were only a few feet away from the trail. I thought for sure they would ram us with their horns but we made it past them, surprised that they didn't even budge. We got to beaver falls and played in the water, ate lunch and then headed back to camp. That hike was the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. And our hike ended up longer than we thought, we ran out of water, had a major injury to Gregg's foot. He could not even walk on it. So after getting back to camp at 5:30 we ate dinner and contemplated out game plan. Miraculously, and with the help of modern medicine and a little bit of a tape job, Gregg was feeling ok to start hiking out. So we packed up camp and at about 8:15 PM we headed up the trail ( and when I say up I mean a pretty steep trail with redsand. I think that first 2 miles out is way harder than the 1.5 miles of switchbacks). We got almost 2 miles and almost got attacked by a dog, if Chris had not turned around, it would have bit either me or him. Oh wait let me back up, while we were leaving the campground, this dog started walking with us ( not the one that was attacking us.) He just kept going up and up with us. He would disappear for a while and then there he would be. We nicknamed him Chancho. Anyways we got to the village, took a quick 10 minute snack break and then started up again. Then we came to a fork in the path. In the dark we had no clue which one to take, so we guessed and started one way and then we happened to notice Chancho waiting at the beginning of the other path. So we turned back and sure enough he was pointing us in the right direction ( we later saw the sign pointing the way to the hilltop but really without Chancho, we would have been so lost.) actually there were a few times that Chancho helped us pick the right way, he was such a good, loyal dog, he stayed with us the entire time and met up with some of his friends in the parking lot. Anyways, so we hiked for a couple miles and then dead in our tracks were 2 bulls. I'm serious, bulls with big horns and all. They were HUGE. Of course I was a mess but got the much needed adrenaline rush again.and ran up the side of the trail and hid behind a rock. One of the bulls darted up the trail and the other just stayed there on the trail, snorting and staring. I don't know how, but we got past him and hiked pretty quickly up a ways then heard him running up behind us. I was running too, I had no idea what else to do and then he stopped, snorted some more and there in front of us was his friend. So we went around that bull and hurried up the trail. Thank goodness, that was the last we saw of them! We saw a few more wild horses and then made it to the bottom of the switchbacks. I was really dreading this part because everybody that I talked to about it said it was soooooo hard. Plus my blistered heel was killing me. So up we went and in about an hour, we were at the top. We only stopped once on the switchbacks, Chris and Gregg stopped once because they were a little bit ahead of me but when I saw them stopped I said, " Sorry I'm not stopping because If I do it will hurt my feet too much". So they kept going to because I didn't want to be the first one to run into a wild beast ( which we did run into one more horse right at the top). But we got to the truck at about 1:15AM and drove into the little town, rented a hotel room, showered and slept for about 4 hours. Then traveled home. AHHHH that felt good!

But I really had a great time, I didn't even think about how dirty I was the whole time. And they built these really nice bathrooms in the campground so that wasn't an issue. I will definitely go again and I don't think that I will ever helicopter out ( I guess if I get hurt I will). It was fun to be with Chris in his element, he loves to camp and be outdoors and adventurous. And he was very sweet to me the whole time, He even packed most of the stuff out so it would be easier on me. I feel good about making it the whole way without complaining, I think we hiked a total of 33 miles in 2 days. I didn't even feel weird about being the only girl. I wish we would have taken more pictures, GREGG, I WANT YOU TO SEND ME YOURS!!!! Next time I will definitly have better shoes, bring flip flops, and take more pictures, its beautiful there!
This was on the way to beaver falls, it was just a tiny tiny waterfall but it was cool to go in the little cave behind it, so green and pretty.

This is mooney falls ( spelling?) It was reall big, the picture doesnt do it justice. After this we hiked down a really steep, narrow cliff to the bottom and then 3 more miles down the river to beaver falls. I think this day total we hiked about 18 miles.

This is the cave that we slept in the first night along the trail. Actually I cant really say slept in, we were too scared of wild animals getting us to sleep that night, so this is the cave that we set up our tent in and layed down for 3 hours in.