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| Hiking | 19.10 Miles |
2,995 AEG |
| | Hiking | 19.10 Miles | 3 Hrs | | 6.37 mph |
| 2,995 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Got my reservation a month ago for this the first week of fall break. Planned on taking my 17y/o twin sons down with my bro in law. The day before we were to leave the BIL pulled out so I added my 11y/o daughter to the itinerary... it would be her first backpacking trip (  )
Left Phx Sunday afternoon and car-camped at Hilltop, hit the trail at ~830am, cool temps all the way until we hit Supai where we baked in the full sun. Along the narrows section there we several stinky piles, where the tribe burned and then covered the carcasses of the 12 horses / mules lost in the flash flood last month. I counted 4.... Dogs and/or other critters had partially dug them out, it will take some time. 
Got into the campground, several large groups, but got a nice spot just downstream of the spring, had lots of cover and decent access down the bank to the creek. The creek is still heavily scoured from the flash floods. Work crews were all over the place, cutting dead trees and burning them. Took the kids to Havasu and swam and waded back to camp.
I went on this hike with the idea of lighting the falls after dark with a super-bright LED ($20 amazon purchase). I bought it for mountain biking home after work in the dark evenings and boy is that thing BRIGHT! like Blinding... 3 blocks away! So I toted it along and we hit Havasu Falls after dark and had fun lighting it as I shot some long exposures.. hikers on the trail above were watching us work... wondering what we were doing.
They slept well that night... nice breeze overnight, clear skies.. for some reason I placed my bivy tent under a large branch of the dead sycamore at our spot... I had the recurring thought 'widowmaker' with every gust of wind.
Tues morning we headed down Mooney and explored down past Fern Grotto and then around the corner. Few people down there, but one very large tour group paused to don and doff their water shoes or hiking shoes at every crossing. Was funny to watch. I entertained the idea of heading to Beaver, but then my girl slipped and tumbled and whacked her head, knocking sense back into my plans ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") So we waded around, swam around the falls and then headed back to camp for lunch. After lunch we went upstream to New Navajo Falls, the upper section if very lush and is forming into a great swimming area, much like old Navajo falls. Lots of travertine formations, overhangs, pools, etc. Swam here for the afternoon and then headed back for dinner. After dark I hiked back up to Navajo and lit it up with the LED. Caught the Milky way rising over it as a bonus.
Had a leisurely Wed morning, we went back up to Navajo for more swimming and then back to camp for lunch and then to break it down for the trip out. As we were packing, we noticed a large influx of people, a group stopped at our site and asked if they could take it when we left. They explained that the South Rim had been shut down due to the budget failure....
The hike up to Supai was hot, we recharged at the Tourist office and then headed up, the boys left us after Supai so the girl and I spent some quality daddy-daughter time hiking out... she actually said "we probably wont get along so well when I hit puberty", D'OH!!! 
Took an extended break at the turn toward the switchbacks, took some more star shots. We both said 'it would be great to see a Shooting Star' - just as one burst overhead...
and then she left me in the dust after the second switchback... 
Breakfast at Denny's in Flagstaff, there were several large tables of drunk and angry Asians, likely had their trips ruined by the shut-down
USA!
USA!
USA! |
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