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| Backpack | 21.00 Miles |
2,496 AEG |
| | Backpack | 21.00 Miles | 4 Days | | |
| 2,496 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Awesome experience!
Mid October, wonderful weather the entire trip, cool evenings, warm afternoons, zero threat of rain, calm to gentle breezes. The stream water was about 64 degrees, too cool for 'us' to go swimming ... others did.
Sun - Spent the night before the hike at Grand Caverns Inn ... closest lodging (64 miles) to the Hill Top.
Mon - Arose at 5:45am, ate at the Caverns Restaurant, drove to the trail head. Left the trail head at 9am ... didn't get to the campground until 5pm. Yes, that was eight hours ... we are not as young as we used to be and we hiked our packs in, didn't use the horse/mule trains ... but we got there before dark 
Tue - In the morning we went down and experienced the 'chutes and ladders' (the real life kids game) of Mooney Falls ... completely exhilarating. In the afternoon we went up to the Havasu Falls, sat in the cool waters (64 degrees) ... very refreshing for the legs and feet.
Wed - Went back down to the 'chutes and ladders' of Mooney Falls went downstream to just past the first stream crossing. Turned around and thoroughly explored the entire area back up to Mooney Falls. Found the top and bottom of the little falls of the beautiful little creek that comes in from the side canyon.
Thu - Arose at 5:45am, ate, completed packing up the camp site and headed up corrals at the head of the campground. Left our backpacks for the horse/mule train to take out (we learned from our trip in). We left the campground at 7:50am and reached the Hill Top at 2:20.
Eight hours to get in with our packs ... six and half hours to get out with just our day packs. We're not speedy, but we enjoyed the entire trip.
For those of you that have never been there .. as we hadn't ... here is some basic information ...
Campsites. There are picnic tables to basically designate each campsite. Some of the tables are very nice and apparently fairly new metal tables, some are very older wooden tables. The ground is quite clear, easy to stake a tent. Minimal rocks provide a smooth sleeping surface. I've noticed many people mentioning that they had 'secluded' camp sites near the stream, or away from the stream, we were very happy to have a site right near Fern Spring on the main trail ... we very much enjoyed speaking with the people walking by.
Food storage. At the GC NoRim to SoRim we found old ammo boxes to store our food. Here it is apparently not needed due to the local roaming dogs must keep away the wild animals. However, we hung our food from a tree branch just to be safe. We did see several of the dogs (and some squirrels) going through camp sites when the humans where gone and scavenging for food.
Water. We brought a filter and pills to take care of the water, however we never used them. The water at Fern Spring appeared to be safe. It was for us, and for everybody we asked. No problems with taste either. The water was just running our of a pipe sticking out of the rock cliff face ... you just fill up your water bottles or water bladders from from the pipe. Fern Spring is very near the beginning of the campground. I didn't notice any other places in the campground to get 'drinking water' ... doesn't mean there wasn't ... I just didn't notice any others.
Port-a-Johns. They had 4 port-a-johns at the beginning of the campground and and the downstream end of the campground they had 4 more. Also at the beginning they had a building that appeared to be out of service that was suppose to be a composting toilet house ... but it was out of service. I didn't find the port-a-johns to be that bad, but my wife did, but even she didn't find them that bad. Most of the smell at the beginning of the campgrounds probably came from corrals rather than from the port-a-johns. My recommendation would be that the tribe clean/replace the port-a-johns more often.
Trash. We found far me trash on the trail in that should be tolerated by the tribe, but from my perspective it appeared to be water and Gatorade bottles, which I believe were left by the visitors. Should the tribe be more proactive in keeping it clean? Simple answer ... Yes. Unfortunate that we (the visitors) leave a mess, and unfortunate that the tribe doesn't make the effort to keep it cleaner.
Mooney Falls' Chutes and Ladders. Getting into Mooney Falls (at least for my wife and I) was very heart and lung acceleratingly ... I'm sure due to the adrenaline rush. We did it twice, but really got our hearts and lungs going each time. We spoke with the REI guide at one point and I expressed that I wouldn't want his job when it came to getting clients up and down at Mooney. The REI guide's eyes basically lit up and he smiled with glee and rubbed his hands and stated, 'that's when the fun starts'. He said that he gets to 'spider man' up or down the chutes and ladders and 'leapfrog' over people to get to the person in trouble ... 'give them a hug' and tell them that it is 'ok' and they will make it. He stated that he has had grown men cry ... I can believe it ... very thrilling and exciting. My wife is only 5' 1" and some of those 'steps' of the ladder thoroughly go to the extreme limit of her physical ability to reach. But we did do it twice ... intentionally
Trail Dogs. Yes, there are numerous 'trail' dogs. At both the trail head and in the camp site. Don't know the policy, nor the norm regarding feeding them ... we never fed them. All of them, on an individual basis, seemed quite nice ... we never petted any of them. We never felt threatened by them either, we basically just ignored them.
Horse/Mule Train. We packed in our backpacks ... and had the pack animals take them out. Next time we'll have them pack them IN and out. The advantage of using the horses to haul your gear in/out rather than the helicopter is that the horse trains go all the way to the head of the campground. If you choose to use the helicopter you have to pack it the distance (2 to 2.5 miles) from the village to the campground and back yourself, the trek past Havasu Falls (elevation change) would probably be the biggest reason to just leave it to the pack animals. I saw a few people packing there stuff out, but the MAJORity of the people leave it to the pack animals.
Swimming. We did experience a large group skinny dipping at Havasu Falls. Personal opinion ... I found that to be very disrespectful at a very easily accessible location ... disrespectful to our hosts and other visitors ... knock yourself out at more secluded locations. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
. We haven't been there yet so we don't know what we missed. However, as a last minute fill-in hike, Wind Cove worked very nicely. Convenient to get too, way too convenient, way too many people for my liking. Fortunately we got to the 'top' just as a large group of cub scouts or something was leaving.
