As is my custom…I take notes and write my thoughts while they are fairly fresh in my mind. Most of what was written here was jotted down in camp or on the plane ride home. I filled in the blanks when I got home and put this post together. As I wrote, it occurred to me that our group covered not only beautiful landscapes, but also deeper meanings and life topics. I hope this piece is as much a helpful travel guide as it is relatable path to your own explorations. Please enjoy reading about our adventure and plan your own.
~ Dave Decoteau
8/25/26 - Gettin’ to the Gettin’
8:00 p.m. - left Danville Pennsylvania for Lansdale. Having your own business means never being able to have everything neatly wrapped up by the time you would actually like to leave. I had hoped to leave no later than 6:00 p.m. but robots needed to be fixed and lawns needed to be mowed and I couldn’t leave my clients in the lurch, so I stayed and made sure everything was working. Between that and trying to get the word out that we were closing Riverside Adventure Company for a few days…it was chaotic.
Got to Daniel’s place (my brother) around 10:30 p.m. His girl Theresa tried to stay awake to say, “hello”, but that was way past her bedtime. So Dan (also self employed) explained to me that I would be sleeping in the camper in the driveway. But when I got to the camper, Dan explained that the camper didn’t have water (and it should) but “something happened”. I assured my brother that he didn’t need to explain to me, and that I would literally just be sleeping in the camper for a few hours and that I wouldn’t need water and that I would not “dry poop” into his toilet.
Dan believed me, told me he would leave the back door open for me (and not shoot me) if I had to come into the house in the night to use the toilet. With that, he showed me how to use the funky screen door on the trailer…and he left.
I dorked around for a couple more hours just to make sure my bags were packed properly, and when I felt satisfied that I had done my best to have a smooth airport experience and flight…I too went to bed a little after midnight.
8/26/26 - Ubers, Planes and Murder Hotels
A very inaccurate graphic of the falls.
Got up Wednesday morning around 4:30 a.m. and rearranged my pack some more. Ditched the camp chair and table. Left a few other articles of clothes and paired-back to the bare minimums. Little did I know then, but this would become my regular hours and morning routines for the next few days.
5:30 a.m. - The Uber came. Dude didn’t speak much English and that’s fine: but his driving was piss poor and he took a route that annoyed Dan. I felt we might be heading into conflict, but Dan rolled with it. We later determined that he was just a shitty “fast lane driver” with no turning or accelerator skills who was avoiding tolls so that his fare would work out profitably. We arrived at the airport eventually; annoyed but unscathed.
The plane departed at 9:00 a.m. with a flight time of 5 hours and 19 minutes to Vegas. You gain three hours so you arrive around 11:30 a.m. their time. For most of the trip I napped and talked to a bunch of late twenties/early thirties guys who were going to Vegas for a bachelor party. These guys were public works guys, so between a career commonality there, and past bachelor party stories: there was a lot to talk about. We had a couple of a.m. beers together and that’s never a bad way to start a trip or new friendships.
Our group was separated because of predatory airline seating premium nonsense, so we didn’t get much time to talk on the flight. We still had a couple hours of driving, so maybe there would be time to talk and get organized then.
Arrived in Vegas. It’s always odd to get affronted with the heat and the soulless ringing and whirling sounds of the slot machines as soon as you step off the plane gangway. Vegas is its own thing.
Renting the car was the typical too slow, process, but this one wasn’t nearly as bad as the last time in New Orleans with Enterprise rental cars. That one took hours and there is no way to not hear that Seinfeld bit and Jerry’s voice in your head as he explains to the representative that she is good at “taking” the reservation…but not “holding” it….which is really the most important part. That’s a good bit, and it makes enduring the gross incompetence more bearable when you can find the humor in the situation.
Black Buick small SUV obtained, it was time to hit the open road!
First stop: Grand Canyon Cavern Hotel!
New, six-lane highways around Las Vegas quickly gave way to smaller, older roads, and eventually a good bit of the journey would be spent on the legendary Route 66. With its endless campy decor, dilapidated building and a glimpse into 50’s “highway culture” gone the way of the Dodo. 🦤
My pre-trip planning and A.I. advice indicates that, “while traveling in this area, make sure you stop for gas often, as there are large section of this road and this country that can’t support gas stations. In a way, this advice was foreboding of a sign we would see in the Havasupai campground that warned, “things change, makes sure you always have enough water on your person for an 8 mile hike”. I guess the moral of the story here is: when in harsh environments: plan accordingly…or run out.
We had a nice ride and enough gas to make it to the Grand Canyon Cavern Hotel.
“This can’t be it?”
This was the first thing we all thought and some said upon laying eyes on the place.
It was a half step above what you would typically drive past and assume it was closed…and had been for some decades now.
Dirt parking lot.
A guy out front raking…but why and what? Nothing but weeds and rocks.
Everything needing paint and repair
The fear of rooms that will smell like wet carpet from leaking roofs.
Every article you have read about bedbugs jumps into your mind.
Maybe chalk outlines showing where the body was on the floor.
There was water running through the dirt parking lot, and an old, dented, Mazda pick-up truck, dash covered in tools, old cigarette packs and dust, driven by a slightly overweight Native American young man with long hair pulls up, leans out the window, and says, “broken water line. Just fixed the same line about a month ago.”
Like with everything Route 66: the place looks like it had its day. You can see when it was a growing, thriving operation; but it seems like that was many decades ago. The metal and plastic dinosaurs that used to be part of the mini-golf course are still there: but the course is gone…and has been for a while and now it’s the area the taller, older Indian is presently raking.
All this being said, and trying to paint a picture of this place and our trepidation: the woman who greeted us when we ventured inside couldn’t have been nicer or better informed. She was a slightly overweight Native American woman in her late 30’s. As our adventure progressed we would learn that the women seem to pretty much be who keeps anything happening and running on the native lands.
This nice woman gave us our real, metal room keys on a plastic fob and a remote for the TV in each room. Both clearly labelled with a white p-touch machine generated label. No sissy plastic cards to swipe…real keys and clunky remotes for older televisions. She also instructed us as to obtaining our paperwork needed to hike, and the associated wrist bands, and tags. And with that: we were off to our rooms while still harboring some concerns of pending unacceptable hygiene standards and/or bad smells.
Our worst fears were not realized, as the rooms were passable. The air conditioning worked reasonably well and the showers were literally like being hit with a firehose. I have never had pressure like that at any other establishment. So, you give the questionable stuff a pass, and look at the bright side. Don’t judge a murder hotel by its cover. Onward!
8/27/26 - Failure is an option
3:00 a.m. Another early morning. This one the most important because how this day goes will likely set the tone of the entire trip. You see, Theresa has Parkinson’s and although she says she wants to do this trip: all three of us have some concerns. There are scenarios where her condition matched with her novice status as a hiker/camper gets us into a world of trouble that is not easily rectified without helicopters and other implements of “type 3 fun” (see chart below)
The plan was:
Up at 3:00 a.m.
Hour and a half ride to trailhead from hotel
Ready to hike by 4:30 (no later than 5:00 a.m)
Start hike with headlamps, but within an hour: have enough light to see and enjoy the scenery.
Walk at about 2 - 3 mph for the 10 miles.
Arrive by 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. before the heat of the day, and 100°+ temperatures (like we had yesterday) start to bake us.
And that’s pretty much how it started. Only surprises being that we saw an unexpected Elk and freshly run-over jackrabbit on the ride, while praying the unexpected, periodic and violently bumpy, cattle grates did not rip out the Buicks suspension as we travelled the 60+ miles of desolate 45 mph road to the trailhead at 66 mph (always mindful of fuel consumption and fuel opportunity as foreshadowed by our A.I. travel advisor). We arrived at the trailhead with about 90 miles left in the tank.
Then after literally seeing nothing and no one for 90 minutes of driving: the trailhead was a bustling hub of activity!
Girl groups in red Jeeps with plastic ducks on the dash.
Couples
A few solo
Families
Lots of India 🇮🇳 Indians (more on the later)
All and all: a pretty diverse crowd.
Our group did last minute adjustments, put on our packs…and we were off! Little did I know at that moment that I would be reconsidering the entire idea and offering to my brother and Theresa with 30 steps onto the trail that…
“there is no shame in changing our plans right now, and bagging the whole thing.”
This about-face was the result of the dark, the solid rock trail sloping downward at about a 40% grade, the loose rocks on top, and Theresa’s fear level and anxiety over being unable to find her footing.
We were just starting, and if you fall off this trail, there is a lot of exposure and ways that a little fall could quickly become a big fall (or what we call in mountain biking a “boom-bitta-bonk-bitta-doink”). And a fall, with injuries on this hike would be catastrophic. Better to bag it early, chalk it up to “overestimation of ourselves” and skip the cost, embarrassment and potential pain of an injury and extraction.
We were traveling at about 1/2 mile per hour. Which by itself was not a problem. But when you realize that speed has us carrying 40 lb packs through the heat of the day, for 10+ hours…you start imagining defeat and all the ways that might look:
Run out of energy
Run out of water
Mental breakdown
Injury
Physical breakdown
Seemed at that point that there was more likelihood for failure than for success. We talked this over with Theresa, but she wanted to keep going and she saw pathways to success and good outcomes, and she convinced us she could do it…so we kept going.
That is not to say she was “happy” about it. She was not. There was a good bit of complaining and talk of five-star hotels and questions like, “why would anyone ever do this?”
But she kept moving…
And yes, it did become a long, hot, tiring day of carrying packs in the late August 107º Arizona sun…but she made it!
I give Theresa a lot of credit! Based on how things started: I didn’t think we had much chance at success. But she put her head down, did a fair amount of bitching…and got it done! And that’s super commendable and admirable!
And as she finished, in her triumphant moment we all unanimously, energetically and emphatically agreed that there was NO WAY IN HELL SHE WAS HIKING BACK OUT. We had to make other arrangements, but the “other arrangements” were also difficult, as the options were rumored to be unpredictable and erratic… if they existed at all.
That is to say that the Havasupai tribe offer baggage services via donkeys and even a helicopter option…but all are described in travel blogs as “sporadic” and only happening in certain conditions. That was all upsetting to consider at that time, but we had a few days to consider out options, and I will get into all that a little bit more later in this story.
About the hike in…
I loved it. So many travel blogs and videos seem to treat the hike in a passing way. They seem to gloss over it. Like, “first you hike in…then the cool waterfall stuff happens.” I would offer that the hike in (and out) is amazingly beautiful and a big part of the experience. Don’t treat it as a chore…it’s an amazing hike in its own right, and I would rank it as in the top three hikes I have ever done.
Also, don’t underestimate it. It’s 10 miles which isn’t insane, but it’s steep and rocky in the beginning, and it’s probably dark when you start…so it can be intimidating to beginner hikers.
When you are coming out of the canyon section, and about to get to Supai village, you start to see more green and the effects of the river and water. In our case, we also got to see the first evidence of the recent flooding from two weeks prior. The trail was washed out in some places, and a little hard to follow. The Havasupai people do their best to keep the trail passable, but they still had some repairs to make, and as a result, we needed to do some way finding of our own.
When you first see the Supai Village, you might be a little shocked by the conditions. It’s not a tourist town. One of the first things you will see is three blue portopotties just off the trail (that might be a welcome sight) until you realize that they have no way to pump them out, and that they seem to have about 20 years of “patina”. They are not for the faint of heart, but if you have been holding it for mile…they are appreciated.
The second thing you see (if you get there after 11:00 a.m. is the “ice cream stop”. It’s a little house in pretty bad shape. It has a lot of trash in the dirt yard, and a couple of wooden seats. It’s not what most folks would call “appetizing”. But if you want to talk to a really lovely woman, who will bring you very cold, very tasty treats and be wonderful and funny…stop and take a break. She is great and a cold gatorade at this point tastes like heaven. I talk a little bit more about this shop and this nice woman later in this post.
8/28/26 - Camp Chillin’
This was our third day of all being together. We had survived the part that we were all most worried about (the hike in). After hiking-in and setting up camp yesterday; we decided to take a little break on this day and settle in. We decided that on our first full day in the campground, we were going to “get our bearings” a little bit. Take it easy on our feet and hips and backs, and just enjoy ourselves and the amazing scenery that was close by the campground.
Our intinerary for this day:
Hang out at Havasu falls and swim
Hang out at 50 Foot falls and swim
Hang out at Hidden Falls and swim
See the common denominator here? Go to the close places and just enjoy ourselves.
Truth is, there is really no reason to ever leave Havasu falls. It’s gorgeous, and hard to beat.
perfect to look at.
perfect water temperature
perfect for hanging out and simply enjoying the spectacle of it all.
We spent the lions share of the day there, but we did hike up to 50 foot falls (or Hidden falls), I am a little confused about which was which, but the one closest to the village had all the trails wiped-out from the flooding, so it was inaccessible to us. But the one up from Havasu Falls was spectacular and the water-trail hike in to see it.
Making new friends
Nothing like a shared trauma-bond of hiking 10 miles into the campground to get people loosened up, social ,and friendly.
We rekindled our acquaintance with Damon and Karen from Texas. We met them at dinner the night before at the Cavern Restaurant just down the road from the Hotel. It was good to reconnect with them again.
We had a joyous reunion with Morgan and her mother Beth(?) We originally met about 7 miles into the hike when both Theresa and Beth were at their lowest points of moral and commitment. Both were ready to quit at that point. But everyone talked it out, and inspired and motivated each other, and everyone soldiered onward!
We made friends with a family from Utah who have come here every year for the past 13 years (since their kids were like three years old). This family was HARD CORE, and made us feel like wussies for complaining about anything. They were in the process of investigating old mines and they had hiked everything (including the confluence hike) which becomes important later in the story.
After visiting town on this day, and talking about helicopters and baggage and such with the towns people, we met a solo hiking woman who looked as if she had enough for the day. As we hiked back to the campground, we walked with her and assured her, and offered to carry her bag. She refused assistance (as she wanted to be able to say she did it herself) but she did seem to enjoy the company. She completed the hike and set up camp right next to ours. If you watch the video at the end of this post you will see her. She and Theresa became good friends in the hours after she finished her hike and that actually became a great help to everyone in the coming day.
We met a lot of people during the four days in Arizona, but that is not to say that the campground was crowded.
Light attendance at the Campground
Apparently, it’s not uncommon for there to be 500 people in the campsite any any given stretch. This was one of the factors that I liked least about the idea of doing this hike. I envisioned all kinds of annoying “influencers” snapping selfies all over the place wearing Gucci camping clothing and hawking products based in their endorsement deals. But just like being murdered at the hotel…it didn’t happen.
Instead of posers all over the place, I would estimate that the campground was at 25% capacity, or not much more than 100 Adventurers in the whole place. I think this was the situation for a few reasons:
The flooding of previous weeks had scared people away. Reports of people still missing and a messed up campground.
There was a “slasher” in the campground the week prior to our visit. Apparently a well known psycho/druggy in the Supai village tried to kill a woman with a knife when she asked for directions and help. The perp was quickly apprehended, but the news got out, and scared people.
The Supai were telling folks that they were “limiting reservations”. I don’t think this was true, because how would they do that? Most people had reservations for months prior, what would they do to get then to not come? Why were we not contacted?
Bottom line: there were mercifully less people than usual, and we liked that just fine. That fact made it really easy for us to find a great campsite very close to the spring water, the bathrooms and a “high ground” area…in case of additional flash flooding. We loved our campsite!
Another pretty terrible info graphic…but better than the first one.
Start planning for getting out…and all the factors.
So, as I mentioned earlier, we were all 100% in agreement that there was no way Theresa was hiking out…especially if she had to carry her backpack. So here were the options:
She hikes out…without her bag…because the horses will carry her bag.
She gets a helicopter, and takes her bag along with her.
She gets a helicopter, and her bag goes on the horses.
Seems pretty easy to pick one of those three…right? Not so easy…and here’s why:
A friend of mine prepared me for this hike, as she had done it a couple of years prior. And her advice was very stern and earnest, “Whatever you carry in…plan to carry it out. The horses and the helicopter are COMPLETELY UNRELIABLE.
They might come…they might not
They will fly the helicopter for as long as they like.
There is no way to get a guarantee that you get a flight: you simply pay, queue up, and hope for the best.
If the helicopter stops coming…what do you do?
If the helicopter stops coming, and everyone else has hiked out….is Theresa now on her own with no camping gear?
If Theresa never gets a flight, and can’t hike out…are you hiking back in to her…with her gear…and yours?
If Theresa thinks she is getting a flight early in the morning, and she waits and waits…now she has to try to hike out in the heat of the day…almost assuring failure.
So, you see…the decision wasn’t too easy, and there was lots of ways it could go wrong, and as a result: we spent a lot of time considering options and fretting about all the potential ways whatever we planned…would fail.
8/29/26 - Confluence hike, Sheep, Mice, and Brother time
This was potentially the most ambitious of our days at Havasupai. I wanted to do the hike to the confluence of the Havasupai Creek and the Colorado river. Most websites I had visited and videos I had watched said it was well worth the effort: if you could do it.
Dan also had interest, but he had to balance that interest with getting Theresa back out of this place and back home tomorrow. His concern centered on hiking out with Theresa on the last day if the helicopter and horses proved unreliable. Could he do that, if he had 20 miles of hiking in his legs on this day? It was a legitimate question and consideration.
Because it was legitimate, I offered to do the hike solo. As supporting evidence of my ability to do the hike safely alone, I used the robust Utah family that we met on our second day. They did it successfully and half of them were 13 year old girls in sandals. It was a compelling argument, but some concerns still remained because this hike is twice as long as the hike in, with elevation, and the treacherous Mooney Falls trail with tunnels, and wet rocks, and chains, and ladders. If you were going to get hurt: this seemed like a very possible place to do so.
And maybe the biggest concern of all about this hike was flash flooding. It flooded a couple of weeks ago, and some people had gone missing who were hiking this trail, because once you are in this valley…the walls of the canyons are high…and there is nowhere to go.
Bottom line here: do this hike based on your risk tolerance.
If you can’t deal with the fact that a thunderstorm can happen any time here in the rainy season and that might result in a flash flood…don’t do the hike. Doing things while afraid is not fun. Drowning/Dying was not on our bingo card, but it was something that needed to be considered.
After some discussion, Dan decided to go with me, and I was glad he did, because I felt that the hike was our best opportunity to see a mountain goat (which he really wanted to do) and because I thought it would be spectacular. He decided he would just have to make sure things went well getting Theresa out the next day…or pay the price. Failure was not an option.
Here was our plan:
4:30 a.m. (again) - Dan and I got up, did final adjustments to what we were taking with us, and started to walk.
5:00 a.m. - Get to Mooney Falls (less than a mile from camp, but it’s the part with the cliff hike, and holes and tunnels and wet rocks and chains and danger.
7:00 a.m. - hike quickly to Beaver Falls (about 6 miles from camp).
10:00 a.m. hike quickly to the confluence (about 10 mile from camp.
Eat lunch, hang out, enjoy the Colorado river and the mixing of waters.
11:00 a.m. start to head back, taking our time getting back to investigate the things we hurried by during the hike out.
4:00 p.m. - Arrive back in camp.
And that’s pretty much how it went. We didn’t really deviate much from the plan…and it was spectacular as hoped. When we got back to Mooney Falls in the evening, Therea and her new friend were there to greet us (accidentally…it just worked out that way) and that was a nice touch to get some photos and spend some time together hiking back to camp.
Some things that happened along the way of note:
We didn't see a lot of people but many of the people we did see were Indian people (as usual). I say “as usual” because this was evident from the very start of our hike and more obvious as we walked along this path, through the campsite, and even just to the bathrooms and to get water. It was hard to ignore the numbers of Indian people enjoying this place. Years ago, this might have surprised me. Why would this place in the middle of Arizona be so attractive to folks from India? But after visiting Niagra Falls a couple years prior, and seeing the popularity of that place with Indian cultures…I looked into the phenomenon a little and this is what I learned:
Waterfalls hold profound spiritual, ecological, and cultural importance in Indian traditions, symbolizing the descent of divine grace, cosmic energy, and the eternal flow of life.
So, it’s obvious why Havasupai is so popular in the Indian culture once you understand why. Feel free to Google it yourself and do your own research, but knowing what you are seeing is always part of what makes adventures interesting and meaningful to me, and I hope by mentioning this here, it helps future adventurers know and understand what they are experiencing. It was an unknown and amazing part of Indian culture to me, so I thought sharing it here might be interesting for others.
Animals - as you can see in the photos, we saw lots of critters along our walk. Mostly we saw waterfowl like herons and ducks, but we also saw lots of small perching birds as well. We also saw a good number of lizards. Unfortunately, we also saw our fair share of rodents…and I will talk about them more later in the “mouse” section. But BY FAR the most amazing animal thing that happened to us was happening across a very large, very mature male mountain goat (see the photos below). We knew they were here, but we had no idea we would stumble upon one like 15’ away from us on the trail. Luckily, this fellow had probably seen lots of folks before us, so he seemed more “bothered” than “annoyed”. We didn’t want “annoyed”. So we told him we would be appreciative if he decided not to ram us, and just let us back up a little and find an alternate route around that part of the trail. He lowered his head a little at one point…which was concerning, but he ultimately obliged and there was much rejoicing. We also saw quite a few smaller and younger goats, but this one male will be the one that really sticks in my mind and the mind of my brother. Mission accomplihed! Goat experience obtained!
The hike itself - the hike itself is “challenging” as advertised. It’s long. It has some elevation. It has some areas of minor rock climbing. It has all the slippery rocks and chains and ladders that have been made so famous both directly in the Mooney falls area, and sporadically placed along the entire hike to the confluence. So, if you want a trail that gives you just about every look possible including quite a few creek crossings…this one is for you. My big “best gear” take away from this hike was that socks and sandals might make you look like a nerd, but that’s the way to go in both my estimation and the estimation of the robust Utah 13 year old girls who were my muse and inspiration.
Beauty - it’s everywhere. So much so that you can almost get jaded really quickly into taking this magnificent arid oasis for granted within a relatively short time. Every so often you need to stop and ask yourself, “is this even real?” I mean, there is so much beauty everywhere you look, that it’s possible that you question if you might not be dreaming all this? Can a place like this really exist on planet earth? It’s the kind of place you would describe using heavenly terms. Yeah, it’s that amazing. I found this particularly true in the area near Beaver Falls (about 6 miles into the hike). That particular area was so amazingly spectacular just about every direction you looked; that it was hard to wrap your head around it. Make sure you stop and pinch yourself every so often, so you can really feel the gratitude of your good fortune to be able to see this with your own eyes.
Flooding / Rafters - After the goats and the climbs and the river crossings, and about 8 miles we could tell we were getting close. And then we saw people…lots of people. And that seemed weird at first, since we saw no footprints on the trail in front of us while we were hiking in. Both my brother and I hunt, so we are fairly good trackers, and we would have known if we were just two among many hikers that morning. Because of the light rain the night before, the trail had been “wiped clean” for us, like we were the first to ever hike that trail. So when we saw dozens of hikers ahead of us…we were momentarily confused. But when we realized that they had disembarked from rafts on the muddy Colorado for a short hike and swim up the crystal clear waters of the Havasupai creek…it all made sense.
To be honest, the world of the rafters seemed a little “carnival” to me. They carried beers and had inflatable animal-shaped “floaties” in bright colors. Not to act like an elitist “hardcore hiker” or anything, but how dare these tourists ruin this tourist’s peak experience with their loud and garish existence. That’s a little bit joking…but not entirely.
My brother and I hiked past these curious creatures…a few of them of the juvenile variety. We were polite, and inquisitive, and supportive of their right to be on what we now kind of considered “our trail”. And then, we came around a rock and there was the Colorado River in all its brown violence. We sat down, and ate our lunch totally oblivious to what was happening just a little bit up stream in Bright Angel Canyon.
You see, as my brother and I were making and then eating sandwiches at the confluence and watching the blue and brown waters co-mingle…the storm clouds were gathering up river that resulted in some of the most devastating flooding the canyon has seen in a long time. Some folks estimating that it will take decades for rebuild the infrastructure and for that part of the Grand Canyon to recover. It’s Army Corp level damage….and a few people died.
The flooding started making national news as my brother and I started our hike back under glorious, blue, cloudless skies. Those skies started to change as we were heading back, and eventually we got a little rain of our own, but we had no idea the hellish nightmare that was happening just a few canyons over.
We had no cell coverage, so we had no idea that this was happening when our family and friends started calling. They were hearing the news, and as it represented the “worst case scenario” for our trip, some folks got exceedingly worried very quickly, and started looking for any answers they could get. I apologize to those people now for causing them any drama.
The last thing I will say about the flooding is my continued concern for the folks we saw that day and whom we gave passing regard. I hope they were all alright, and none of them lost anyone that day. They were happy when we saw them, but that’s because at that point: they were as blissfully unaware as we were. I hope they all completely their trips safely…but we will never know for sure.
This image to show that we weren’t far from the flooding, but we also were not in danger.
Brother time - As beautiful at the place was/is, the fact that I got to spend a whole, long, interrupted day with my brother just talking and hiking was really the biggest payoff of the entire trip to me. No cell phone service. As I think about it, this day was unprecedented in my entire relationship with my brother. I can’t think of a single time, we have spent an entire, uninterrupted day together. Not one.
We have both been self employed almost exclusively since our “informative years”. Even as kids, he was six years younger than me, so we travelled in different circles. What teenager wants to hang out with his seven year old brother? Not this one. Sure, we spent time together as kids, and yes, we even worked together for years…but in those times there were always goals to obtain, and phones ringing, and girlfriends, and then wives, and then kids. We never just “did stuff” together…but today…we did.
At one point on the hike, I turned to him and said, “Ya know, it’s very likely we will never spend an entire uninterrupted day together for the rest of our lives.” To this, Dan acknowledged the comment, and in his “problems solver” mostly unemotional way said, “well, we will actively have to try to do something about that fact.” I appreciate that about him and I appreciate our brotherhood and our bond. We aren’t overly emotional guys. We are both guys who do things. The reply he gave was the only one possible. Whether we deliver on that goal or not, is now up to us. But even if we don’t…we will always have this day…and for that, I will always be appreciative that he took the time and gambled with his legs in regard to the next day’s hike out.
Back at camp
We all hiked back from Mooney Falls together talking and telling stories about our adventure. Apparently, camp got more rain than Dan and I got on the trail, and the girls were hunkered down to ride it out for a while.
When we arrived back, I immediately noticed that my backpack seemed “off”. It looked like it had tipped over, but I chalked that up to winds and rain. But as I looked closer, there were also “bits” around it. And then I realized that the bits were food and pieces of my new backpack. MICE HAD DISCOVERED MY BAG…AND WERE EATING IT AND IT’S CONTENTS!
ATTACK OF MICE!
My beef jerky was gone. They ate into the compartments on the hip straps and ate the trail mix I planned to eat on the hike out. Fortunately, some of the other compartments were open, so the mice didn’t have to eat into them to gain access.
How did I know it was mice, and not one of the many squirrels or chipmunks in the campsite? Because they were not shy, and they were coming back…many of them…all at once for more raids.
I lifted the bag off the ground, and the mice just looked at me like, “why did you take our food?” I should have stomped them…but didn’t. Instead, I got to hanging my bag, thinking that would stop them. I have camped many times before and that always seemed to work. But this time, I no sooner had the bag hung, than a few mice stormed the tree it was tied into, ran up the trunk, down the branch and down the rope…right back into my bag! I grabbed the bag and got the Menacing Mice out! They ran…but not far. They were literally triangulating on me. I had never seen anything like it. It was a COORDINATED ATTACK!
Other people in camp were seeing what was happening and offering assistance. One offered a “rat sack” which is a bag that is made out of metal “screen door” like material. The mice had already eaten through one of my phone charger cables (I guess it thought I had made it spaghetti) so I didn’t have much faith that the rat sacks could keep them out…but I took them up on the offer anyway. The mice kept coming!
I was seriously worried that they would eat my entire backpack and I would have no way to get my stuff out of camp the next day. I didn’t want to put the backpack in my tent…because they were eating through everything, and I didn’t want them eating through my tent. I was seriously at a loss in regard to how I was going to defeat this scourge and manage to get any sleep that night while worried sick that my bag would be a pile of debris come morning. That’s when someone said, “man, they are really fixated on YOUR BAG.”
When they said that, a bell kind of went off in my head. Why did they want my bag so bad, but they didn't seem as doggedly determined to get the other bags? And I could only conclude that they had gotten a good belly full of beef jerky…and had developed a compulsion for it. Let’s face it, beef jerky is like camping crack. So if it’s addictive to a full grown person, imagine the compulsion that could develop in a one ounce critter with sharp teeth and claws and nothing but time on its paws.
The solution became clear to me: I had to make my bag INVISIBLE!
Not so much invisible to their sense of SIGHT, but more so to their sense of SMELL!
I had to make the smell of beef jerky go away…or there would be no peace, (and likely no backpack).
I went into my bag and got out my brand new deodorant and began smearing it on everything:
the rope
the bag
my day bag
the tree branch
everything.
And when I was done, the scent of “spring linens” was strong in the air, but the mice were nowhere to be found! They didn’t like it, and the battle had been won! I went to bed, and woke to no further damage! What a great present on our final day in camp!
NOTE - only as this was all going down did I learn that this was a well known problem in camp and literally thousands of posts had been made about the rodents. Some campers having problems with squirrels, other chipmunks and some (like me) mice. Not sure how I missed it, but now you know this is “a thing”.
8/30/26 - hike out and back to Vegas
The morning of variables arrives.
Dan and Theresa have decided that they will both be taking the Helicopter. All three of us will be using the horses to carry our main backpacks. We made this decision after discussing all the factors and arriving at the conclusion that this gave us the best overall chance of success (given our situation).
We rented a horse. The horse can carry four bags. By my being involved it split the cost three ways, instead of just two, and it gave me a much easier hike out.
Dan paid $300 each for both he and Theresa to fly out. Bags up to 35 lbs were an additional $50 each. If you had a bag over 35 lbs, it cost the full fare of $300 to take out. It gets pricey very quickly if you don’t use the horses or carry everything out yourself.
Dan and Theresa would hike up to town at 6:00 to get into the queue for the helicopter that starts running at 8:30 a.m. with hopes of being at the front of the line.
If the helicopter doesn’t come, or stops coming, or it rains…Dan is there with light packs for both he and Theresa to attempt the hike out in the heat of the day…against the odds.
I leave at 4:15 a.m. (I was shooting for 4:00 a.m. but my tent and bag always takes longer to pack than I think it will. Dan is awake when I leave, but isn’t going to the helicopter for a while yet. I say, “Farewell, and see you at the top.”
I have lights on my fingers.
I have a headlamp
I have a hand held lamp.
I use them for maybe five minutes before I decide to turn them all off.
The moon is full. There are moon shadows. I decide I can see well enough to hike. I hike up out of the enchanted canyon in the moonlight…and it is sublime.
I only turn my light on as Indian horsemen approach with their dogs and pack animals to begin taking guests luggage out of the canyon on horseback. They too are traveling by moonlight, so I show myself as a courtesy to all. I take the fact that I am seeing them as a good sign that there will be more horses and a helicopter to take Dan and Teresa out.
They rumble past with some dust and maybe a sniff from a curious dog; and then it is back to only the sounds of my feet…and always the sounds of rushing water in the distance.
These are the moments that make outdoor adventures so meaningful and special and unique. That chance encounter and knowing shared moments will never happen again. It’s everything, and nothing.
I lay down a pace. I am already soaked with sweat before I reach the village, which is only two miles from the camp. I start wondering if water is going to be an issue today? I have my water bottle and my camelbak. To me, that seems like enough, but I was never planning to be sweating this much so early in the hike. I decide to drink when thirsty, but sparingly. I decide to do this until 7:00 a.m. when I will take a half hour breakfast break and assess my water left to miles remaining. At that time, I will eat my breakfast, readjust, and see how things go.
No problems at all hiking. The fact that my pack will be on a horse and all I have to carry is my day pack makes this very enjoyable. I could have done it with the pack, but why make it harder than it needed to be?
7:00 a.m. comes. I am a couple miles from the finish, but it’s the hardest part of the hike. I find a place to get off the main trail, and hike up a small wash for a while, to find a place to take a break and readjust. I find a beautiful, very desolate spot and sit on the rocks and enjoy the solitude and quiet. I am having a moment.
I take inventory. My food, water and stamina are all at acceptable levels. Just keep doing what I have been doing, and I will be fine. I get out the hiking poles (still not sure I like them) as I think they might help with the steep rocky end section of this hike. Off we go.
The last section is as expected: steep, rocky, but doable. I get to the top at around 8:40 a.m. Not long after, I see the first helicopters flying. Not long after that, I see the first horses arriving with gear. I start putting together scenarios in my head:
how long until they get to our bags in that giant pile of bags they had back at camp?
how many helicopters might fly back and forth before Dan and Theresa get on one?
What if they don’t get one at all? When would they get out of the canyon if they have to hike?
Scenarios in my head range from we are on the road and heading to Vegas in an hour to I am hiking back into the canyon at 8:00 p.m. looking for Dan and Theresa. No cell service, so no communications…so all you can do is wait…
Then a miracle happens
I see the second horse come up the path…and it has our bags.
I see the first helicopter fly up the canyon…and it has Dan and Theresa on it!
Glory be! We are going to be some of the first people out! No drama! All that worry and hand wringing for no reason whatsoever. All waisted energy for nothing. The Havasupai miracle made the end of this trip about as smooth as it could have possibly been!
Drive back to Vegas Debrief
Dan and Theresa jump in the rental car. I already have their baggage in the vehicle…and we are off!
Dan and Theresa tell me that they got “bumped up” in line when the helicopter arrived and they were put on the first flight…and it’s a good thing they did, because they said that the helicopter would then be bringing supplies to the village for THE NEXT THREE HOURS and that they would resume taking folks out after that was done. So, that made the Havasupai Miracle (as it’s come to be known) all that more miraculous because if they hadn’t been on the first flight; I would have been sitting there waiting, wondering, worrying for at least half the day.
We have about 90 miles of gas left in the car, and the first 60 miles will be spent on the road back to Route 66. We are hoping we can find a station not long after that…and we do.
We have snacks at the gas station, drive a couple more hours to outside of Vegas, and stop to have some lunch and our first beer since starting this odyssey. The food and drink taste good and our waitress is hilarious. She tells us she came to Vegas “for love”. We ask her how that’s working out? She says, “ehh.”
Check into Excaliber for the night. Vegas hotels are nutty, and all the typical, boring hotel check in stuff happens. Theresa has never been there, and Dan wants to show her around, so it’s into the rooms for showers and getting cleaned up, and then back out onto the Vegas streets for some walking and sightseeing.
Second miracle
As we are walking down the strip in Vegas, just after watching the Belagio water show…we bump into Morgan and her mother again (just like we did earlier when we met them walking the trail into Havasupai). What are the chances? We have a nice chat about everything, exchange phone numbers and they threaten to come to Pennsylvania for a Susquehanna River trip as one of their yearly adventures. I tell them I would love to host them. and with that, we part ways. Back to the hotel for some sleep and getting packed for the last leg of our journey.
8/31/26 - travel home
I am writing this accounting as we fly home. Nothing super remarkable to recount. Basically, reverse the first day from above. We started early again: 4:00 a.m. meet in the hotel lobby for our 6:50 a.m. flight home.
Miscued the car rental return directions into the GPS on the first attempt: but got it on the second.
Miscued the baggage tag on my luggage, but got it on the second try with some help.
Got to the gate with plenty of time to spare for a coffee and some chat.
Authors Note:
I dictated this part below into my phone while hiking out of the campground, so it might be a little rambling. It was just some random thoughts in my head as I was hiking the 10 miles back to “the Hilltop”.
Some thoughts while hiking…
This place Supai Village and Havasupai reservation is Edward Abbey‘s dream… or probably as close to Edward Abbey‘s dream as you can get in modern times.
You have to endure a certain amount of hardship to get to see the beauty of this place. Edward Abbey was always a big fan of that. He hated and rallied against highways built up to Hoodoos and waterfalls. He believed that you shouldn’t be able to jump out of the car, snap a picture, and say you were there. He felt like to really know or see a place you had to earn it. I agree with that to some extent, but with a tip of the hat to empathy.
I don’t know if Edward Abbey ever tried to hike somebody he liked with Parkinson’s down into see something beautiful, but it’s not easy and I think everyone kind of deserves to see things that are beautiful; or at least you can give them a fighting chance.
The bottom line is I like this hike and the whole Havasupai vibe the way it is, but I fear this is a thing that will have its time and eventually not have its time. There’s so much beauty and danger at all the waterfalls that I can’t imagine some clever lawyer won’t find a way to sue somebody into oblivion and get a bunch of money that causes these places to get guard rails, or make it into a thing that you can only look at from behind a fence. The fact that you can interact with the waterfalls, jumping in them, swim in them, with their perfect water temperature is just an amazing experience. The whole thing is amazing and unparalleled in my experience.
There’s just no place for a thing like this in today’s litigious or Instagram world.
I hope I’m wrong.
I hope it goes like this for a long time.
I hope is stays dangerous and hard.
I hope the Village stays as it is.
I hope someone doesn’t clean it up and make it into a sanitized tourist attraction.
I hope people are allowed to see the poverty and it makes them think:
Maybe it’s OK that it’s trashy?
Maybe not everybody has to live by the time clock and buy stuff with the money that they make.
Maybe it’s OK to take your garbage and throw it in the yard?
Maybe it’s OK to have a skinny horse and too many stray dogs?
Maybe this is how native Americans WANT to live?
The lovely woman at the “ice cream stop” on the way into the village gave me a lot to think about. Here she was, seemingly working in squalor, and when I ordered a Gatorade and water, she not only gave it to me with a cup full of ice, but she also informed me that, “it’s free. My first customers of the day are always free.” And as I stood there, thanking her with my mouth hanging open in shock a little bit…she added, “Oh and here are some Havasupai stickers for you.”
Talk about not capitalistic. This woman had us over a barrel! Coming off a 10 mile, hot desert hike, with no water. Having the only cold drinks that we might ever see. Instead of bending us over (like an amusement park or professional ball venue) she GIVES me this valuable commodity…and EXTRAS!
To be honest, I am still processing this exchange. I am a fan of capitalism, because I think it has raised more people out of poverty than any other system, but at the same time…am I missing something?
A lot of questions that come to mine when walking into the village but none of them are like having a 64 fluid ounce plastic cup handed to you at Disney World and trying to decide what flavor you want?
the video companion to the blog. You will see some images you recognize and some new stuff too!
I could write a whole other long blog post about how this place makes you feel. I could write one just on the topic of the village and how that works (or doesn’t). This blog is very light on details about the Native Americans who run this place. That is not so much an omission on my part as it is done out of respect for these people who ask that photos of them not be taken, and that no cameras be used in the Supai village. They want their privacy, and I will honor that request. Although it was hard not to want to capture some of the images of those people and that place. It made me question what life is, and what it should be. I sometimes get similar thoughts and questions in my mind when I spend time around the Amish in Pennsylvania. Another group that has rejected (selectively) modern conveniences for their culture.
This desert oasis is unlikely, in so many ways. The People. The geology. How the minerals make the water blue. The climate. The almost yearly threat of complete devastation due to flash floods in the canyon. You have to wonder how such an unlikely place shapes and molds the people who live there? This place leaves you with more questions than answers…and that’s one of the things that I hope never changes about this place. Maybe don’t think so much, and just enjoy the fact that it exists at all…at this time…as unlikely as that seems to be. Maybe that’s what you take home. Maybe that’s the real beauty of this place…and not just the blue water.