Havasupai Camping Trip (part 2)

Our story left off after the first full day of a three-night trip to the Havasupai campground in the Grand Canyon. You may recall we moved our tents to a better campground where some other mystery tents were already set up. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a conflict. The area was big enough for everybody, but each group likes to have its own individual space.

Of our group, I woke up first at about 5AM. I could see a young man of about 20 setting up hammocks and stoves. It was so hot I didn’t put the rain cover on my tent and he noticed me awake. He introduced him, saying his name and that he was from the village. He meant the village of Supai, which is about two miles up the creek from the campground. He went onto say he had some friends coming in and he set up a camp for them in advance. Then he offered a deal where my group could have a section of the territory, including a picnic table and bench overlooking the creek if we moved our tents there. He offered to move out his tent that was already there. That deal was more than fair, so I accepted. It was an outstanding spot also overlooking the cliff that Mooney Falls went over. We had two beach chairs so the view looking over the cliff was spectacular.

It was originally the plan to go downstream and visit Mooney and Beaver Falls that day. Getting down to Mooney Falls requires going through tunnels and down very wet ladders. For that reason, it is best to get an early start, lest you have to wait in a long line for your turn.

One of the members of our group was very slow to wake up for said journey. When she finally did, her excuse was that she took a valium pill the night before. It was decided to switch the plan and go upstream to Navajo and 50-Foot Falls that day and save Mooney and Beaver for the next day.

Navajo Falls are easily seen on the hike from the parking lot to the campground. They are located between the village of Supai and the campgrounds. Despite every visitor passing them, I think most don’t know that there is a path leading to them and playing there is a thing. We had a great time there. At any given time, we shared this waterfall with anywhere from about 0 to 8 other people. The privacy there allowed us to take a lot of pictures with no other people in the background.

After a while there, we went upstream a little to 50 Foot Falls. At the time I wasn’t exactly sure where they were as I had never heard of them until about a month before the trip. Getting to them requires some bushwhacking and walking through waist-deep water. However, it is worth it.

There were no shores to sit and rest to enjoy 50 Foot Falls. Rather, the water fell into a small lake that was surrounded by cliffs and thick reeds. To explore these falls requires either swimming or walking through water almost up to your head. Because this waterfall is very wide, it allows for the opportunity to go behind the waterfalls. In writing this newsletter, I can’t find any pictures of 50-foot falls. I recall issues with camera batteries by this point, so perhaps we couldn’t take any. I apologize for that omission.

After a day of fun exploring these two waterfalls we went back to the campground to relax. We then went back to the fry bread stand, at about 5PM, but it was closed. As long as we walked that far we returned to Havasu Falls and enjoyed them a second time. We then went back to the camp to eat camping food and enjoy a quiet evening.

When we returned to our campsite, there was a group of about six people the tribe member set up tents for. They consisted of what looked like three professional models and their male companions. I suspect they were not actually close friends of the young tribe member I met that morning. Rather, I think the tribe member was acting as some kind of concierge, offering to get good camps and set them up for people. This is not supposed to be allowed, but probably does happen a fair bit, given the apparent laissez-faire attitude of the tribe.

Day 3 started on time with a fun descent down to Mooney Falls. My previous visit in 2014 I made a GoPro video of the descent down, which I invite you to watch on YouTube . I think this hike is up there with Angels Landing in Utah and Half Dome in Yosemite of great exposed hikes. If you go, bring rubber gloves for the chains. There was a big pile of them at both the top and bottom of the chains, but they looked kind of nasty sitting there in the waterfall mist for who knows how long.

Mooney Falls was still quite cold that early in the morning, especially with all the spray the waterfall created. So, we decided to head directly to Beaver Falls. It is a nice two-mile hike between Mooney and Beaver Falls. It is required to cross the creek three times, so I recommend wearing some kind of shoes you don’t mind getting wet. If you wear sandals, I recommend also wearing water socks, to avoid chaffing on the long hike.

We enjoyed spending time exploring Beaver Falls. They are a set of a few falls one after the other. It is a challenge to get to the top one. Getting to the second level necessitates using a rope somebody nicely left there. Despite being rather spread out, Beaver Falls was crowded. After playing there a few hours we decided to back upstream to a small waterfall about half a mile to relax and have some privacy. This water doesn’t have a name as far as I know but is well worth the visit.

After some time at the unnamed waterfall, we returned to Mooney Falls. By this time, it was fully in the sun. It was the perfect combination of the hot air and cool water. Mooney Falls, by the way, is the tallest of all five waterfalls and well worth the visit if you can brave the hike down to it. I think it is about equally spectacular as Havasu Falls, but less crowded.

Back at camp, we worked on getting ready for the hike out tomorrow. This consisted of packing two of our large bags and taking them to the designated location at the upper end of the campground for bag pick-up and delivery. During this time, two of us made a return visit to the fry bread stand and played some more at Havasu Falls.

We set our alarms for 4AM for the hike out the following morning. Remember, we were deep in the Grand Canyon in the middle of June and wanted to hike out before it got too hot. Many groups started leaving that evening, around 9PM.

The next morning, we packed up our day backpacks and took the other two heavy bags to the pick-up point in a wheelbarrow we found the previous night. By 5AM we had reloaded on water from Fern Springs, all four big bags were in the right place. We were on our way out of the campground for the 10-mile hike uphill to the parking lot.

The hike out was not as bad as I was expecting. Everyone warned me to bring a lot of water, so I had about five liters. However, I only drank about three of them and could have easily got by with two. Yes, it was hot, but not that bad. The three of us made it to the parking lot in five hours, one more than it took to get down.

After arriving to the top, I was expecting our bags to be there, but no mule team carrying bags passed us, as had happened during my 2014 visit. Instead, we had to wait about three hours for them to arrive. As with the delivery on the way down, our bags were the last to be delivered.

You may recall from part one of this story that just before we visited there were reports in the media that people were getting sick at the campground. This had us very concerned on the way down and was part of the reason one member of our group backed out the day before. I’m happy to report that all three of us were fine. I personally didn’t see or hear of any other campers getting sick. A report in the media identified the cause of the outbreak as the norovirus. Here is a link to a news report about that.

Health officials confirm Norovirus at play in nauseous Havasupai Falls gastrointestinal illness scene

Finally, I would like to add that someone mentioned a waterfall we missed called Hidden Falls. They are located between Navajo Falls and the campground. The woman who mentioned it said they had them almost to themselves, save for a small group visiting for about ten minutes. Finding them will be a reason to return.