In the spring we received our REI dividend and purchased a backpack for me and a backpacking tent. And we found out about some good dehydrated meals. So we were all set to go...
We left on a Tuesday and drove down to Peach Springs, which is the closest "town" to the hike entrance. I haven't been through Las Vegas since I was a little kid, and it was weird. All the billboards were for adult shops or lawyers. They must sue people a lot down there.
After passing Vegas, there isn't much until you get to Kingman, Arizona. We were curious to see this place since Jarem and Tressa lived there for a few years. They didn't make it sound like a very favorable place to live. And as we drove through hours of nothingness we wondered why they would have ever considered living there. But then you go around a mountain and into Kingman, and it wasn't nearly as small and dumpy as I expected.
We were curious to see what our hotel, the Grand Canyon Caverns, was like because Peach Springs is supposed to be around the area that Radiator Springs from the movie Cars was based on. But when we got there we found a dumpy motel with a random assortment of "attractions" like Cars, dinosaurs, and cave stuff.
The motel room looked just like the Bates Motel from the scary Hitchcock movie.
And they have a room, restaurant, tour, and ghost tour down in a cave. We decided to take the ghost tour. There were only a few other people there, but when they heard we wanted to do the ghost tour they looked at us like we were crazy. Our tour guide was a smoker who smelled unbearable within a 5 foot radius. He gave us each a EMF reader to detect ghost activity.
I thought they would tell us spooky stories, or have people jump out at us, or have places rigged for the EMF readers to go off. Instead we just walked around while our guide called out to ghosts. Unfortunately we never saw any sort of spirits while down there. But the cave is just as random as the rest of the place. The cave room is in view of the restaurant, so I don't know why anyone would want to pay $700+ to stay there while people can see you and walk by on tour. There was also a room full of army provisions, a stage where people can get married, a desiccated bobcat, and a full size replica of a giant sloth.
It was an interesting place to stay for a night, but it was super weird. We definitely got a lot of good laughs out of it. And at breakfast in the morning we met a dad and daughter who where hiking in at the same time we were. We ended up running into them quite a few times throughout the trip.
The next morning we got up really early to drive into the entrance to Havasupai. We got to the top around 8am and a bunch of people were hiking out. Isaac dropped me and the packs off and drove 0.5 miles down the road to a parking spot. While I waiting for him I talked with a few people coming out. They all said they left their camp at 2am so they could beat the heat getting out. They looked exhausted and said hiking out was the hardest thing ever. So they were freaking me out a little.
But we started the hike and the first 1.5 miles are downhill switch backing to the bottom of the plateau. It was easy going and we made good time. Then the rest of the hike is fairly flat until you get to the Havasu village 8 miles from the top. It was really weird to hike without kids because we hardly ever stopped besides the occasional bathroom break. When we hike with kids we have to stop every 10 steps and get a snack or get a kid in/out of a backpack.
The last mile or so before the village was getting rough for me. I decided to wear my hiking boots, and I was starting to get lots of blisters. My poor soft baby feet always blister. So by the time we got to the village I was ready for a break.
The Supai village was really interesting--in a sad way. The Native Americans all sat around eating bags of chips, drinking soda, and glaring at the people hiking through their town. Most of them were so overweight I doubt they could even hike the remaining 2+ miles to the waterfalls. We figured that they must be making a fortune on all the fees they charge to camp on their reservation, but there was no sign of where the money goes. And they are definitely not maximizing their ability to earn money from people. They would make a killing if they improved their helicopter ride schedule, or set up some tiki huts selling cold beverages, food, and ice cream.
The 2 miles down into the campground were really tiring for my feet. Fortunately we passed a few waterfalls on the way down so we were able to cool them off in the cold water. The first waterfall we passed was Little Navajo Falls (but we thought it was Fifty Foot Falls--we missed this one on the way in). It was a really pretty waterfall, not too tall but fairly wide. And the water color is unbelievable.
Right before the campground we came to Havasupai falls. This is probably the biggest waterfall and the one most of the famous pictures show. We enjoyed swimming here for a while before heading out to find a camp spot.
The campground was super crowded, but we were eventually able to find a spot. We got to our site around 3pm. But by that time my feet were so blistered and sore that I didn't want to walk anymore. I sat down an immediately started popping all my blisters (which Isaac thought was gross).
We didn't quite know what to do with ourselves at that point. We talked for 9 hours on the drive down there, the night before at the motel, and the 10 miles hiking in. We haven't had that much time alone together for a long time.
Eventually we made our dehydrated meals for dinner, which were actually pretty good. Then we ran into the people from the motel and talked with them until bedtime.
The next day we got up and hiked down to Moony Falls. This was a really cool waterfall, but had a really treacherous decent with chains. I thought it was worse going down because the rock is all wet from the spray of the waterfall. But Isaac thought going back up was worse.
Some hikers we met the day before said that we should hike past Moony Falls in the morning because it is shaded and too cold to swim, and hike to Beaver Falls while it is still cool, then swim in Moony of the way out. So that's what we did, and it was really nice.
Beaver Falls was really cool, probably my favorite. There were a few false falls along the way, which meant for a beautiful view. The hike was about 7 miles round trip, but you cross the river multiple times and can cool off.
When we got to Beaver Falls we were the only ones there for a while, and it was the least crowded. We enjoyed swimming there until lunch when we made our way back to Moony Falls.
Then we swam in Moony for a while before going back to our camp. My feet were still really blistered, but I was hiking in my Keens and they were a lot more comfortable.
After being bored at our camp for a while, we decided to hike back to Havasupai Falls and swim around there for a while. The falls were really interesting because we were basically the only people with modest swimming suits (me) and no tatoos. I couldn't believe how many people had tatoos. We had lots of interesting conversations about why people would permanently mark themselves in specific locations and with very odd images.
All day we tried to decide when we should get up to hike out. Most people we talked to were planning to start packing up at 2am. We debated getting up early, or spending the day at the falls and hiking out in the evening. But our decision was made for us as we were awakened by all the other people leaving. We tried to sleep through it for a while, but by about 5am we decided to get up and started hiking at 6am.
We made it to Supai village around 7am where we saw another girl we talked to in line for the helicopter. She had blisters on her feet and decided the take the helicopter out. Basically the Supai indians don't have a helicopter schedule, it shows up if and when it shows up. So the hikers who whimp out (and there are a LOT of them) have to get to the village early to get in a first come-first serve line. The girls we knew got there at 6am and was about 30th in line.
We continued hiking and it was fairly easy going until the final 1.5 to 2 miles. It is just a really long 10 miles carrying a backpack and having hiked 17+ the two days before. But I think we were going at a really good pace because no one passed us the entire time.
Eventually we made it out around noon and ran into the 2 other ladies who were waiting for the girl on the helicopter. They left way before us, and were still waiting for the helicopter. So they were stuck on the top of the plateau in the heat with no water waiting for who knows how long. I'm soooo glad we just hiked out. But the last 0.5 mile to the car was the worst. My blisters were merging together and were the size of quarters and my feet were stiffening up. But we got there!
We were supposed to spend another night at the Grand Canyon Caverns, but we hiked out a lot sooner than we expected and couldn't stand the thought of another night there. So we cancelled that reservation and decided to drive to St. George to shorten our drive home. While passing through Vegas, we invented a game called "Who Would You Sue?" That was a fun topic of discussion for a while.
It was really nice to make it to St. George early because a 9 hour drive sounded unbearable. But my feet were so swollen by the time we reached St. George that I could barely walk and just sat on the bed and iced them.
The next day we drove home and saw the kids again. It was a really fun trip and really good for Isaac and I to have some time together and talk without constant interruptions. We were really grateful to our parents for taking a few days to watch the kids and get them to and from school. I think that going on a couples trip once a year or so is a really good idea.
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