Havasu Creek and its magical falls

The most beautiful place I have ever been. Aaaand one of the hardest to get to. (Written pre-Covid and pre-flooding. Some things have changed since our trip in 2019.)

First glimpse on the trail.

I have been lucky enough to have gone to some really beautiful places. My heart, however, belongs to the desert and its’ waters. This place was the pinnacle of everything I love. The above picture was my first glimpse of the falls at Havasupai on July 13, 2019. I hiked 10 or so miles, down switchbacks in the dark of the early morning hours, to avoid the searing hot desert sun. As we descended the zig-zagging trail the light began to seep into the night sky. Soon we were hiking in full sun and the temperature began to rise (100°F+). Luckily the lower you get in the canyon, the higher the canyon walls became, providing some shade along the way.

My pal, Nicole, and I hiked our way down into this tributary of the Grand Canyon. It was a very long, hot, but beautiful hike. We made a stop in Supai Village to get our permit, which we had purchased months earlier. We then hiked the remaining last two miles, hearing the Havasu Creek fade in and out of our earshot. We were following the dry desert path, when we rounded a corner and BLAM! There it is, Havasu Falls. The picture does not do it justice. It looks so incredibly beautiful in person. The waters are so pristine turquoise, and the surrounding desert is such a striking orange with gold juts of rock formations, with puffs of bright green trees and bushes. It was the exact picture-definition of a desert oasis.

And as beautiful as Havasu Falls were, the creek itself was just as magical. It is somewhere you might imagine fairies dwell. The water is so blue and crystal clear. It bubbles and gurgles over white rocks that resemble cauliflower. There are lush green bushes and trees that surround the area and are polka dotted here and there in the creek. It’s breath-taking.

You can follow the creek to the next fall, thinking it can’t be any better than what you’ve already seen. But it absolutely is! Mooney Falls is just as stunning and it is so huge. The water descends 190 feet into yet another pool of crystalline waters. The rocks in are so white they look bleached, the waters are brilliant turquoise, and are surrounded by the same bright orange cliffs and lush green foliage. There are little pools, underwater caves, a rope swing, and more of the Havasu Creek begging to be followed to the next oasis.

My friend Nicole and I set up camp along the creek in the shade of a couple of trees. We were able to get a great spot that had a small creekside sandy beach of sorts, and a picnic table. After setting up we walked back to Havasu Falls to check it out and swim. We were both tired from the hike and knew we’d be in for another long day in the morning. We headed back to our camp where we sat in our chairs, sipping hot chocolate and reveling in all the day had held. It was a pretty epic day and we still had so much more we wanted to do.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to mention the squirrels, but after some consideration, I decided that if anyone read this and was actually successful in getting the elusive permit to Havasupai, then you should know about the squirrels. In my neighborhood of Long Beach, CA we have some brazen animals. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes, birds, rats, opossums, and, of course, squirrels. But I have never seen wild animals as brazen and clever as the squirrels in Havasupai campground. They are feisty, psycho, crazy, maniac squirrels that will do anything to get your food. ANYTHING! And there are tons of them everywhere. Fat, happy squirrels everywhere. If you do research about going to the falls or get on the Havasupai facebook groups, you can read tales about the squirrels ruining expensive tents, backpacks, opening buckets, moving heavy objects, darting into camp right next to you, jumping out of trees to hanging squirrel proof bags (rat sacks)….and the list goes on. My advice to those of you luckily enough to get permits to go? Do your research and protect your gear. And for Pete’s sake, do not store your food in your expensive backpack or tent. Don’t even put open food in them for a second, because I promise you those squirrels will catch the scent and think there is something left for them. And they will chew through your gear. They will chew your tent. They WILL chew through anything. I think the thing that saved our stuff was my research on the subject. And I got kinda creative because I was so worried about my brand new pack I had just bought. And I was dumb enough to have open food in it on the way into the canyon. Even after reading all the details of ruined stuff, I was dumb about it. So anyways, back to getting creative.. I took our backpacks and put them in trash compactor bags (which I brought for other purposes), and then sprayed the outside of the bags with bug spray so it would taste really bad if a squirrel bit it. I didn’t even know if squirrels had taste buds! HAHA And then we hung a rope between two trees and hung our packs in the center of the trees while we hiked each day. AND IT WORKED! The squirrels still did, indeed, either climb the rope of jumped to our packs.  There were bite marks on the outside of the trash compactor bags, but they gave up and did not penetrate the packs inside. Woo! So happy for our success there because I was really worried. I had brought Skittles like a dumbass. They did, however, bite one of our water bladders and busted it because we left it on the table thinking they wouldn’t be interested. Like I said before…they chew anything. We, luckily, had plenty between the two of us though. The food we stored in buckets wedged under the picnic benches, which were also successful in keeping the buggers at bay.

Day two:

I was so worn out I slept like a rock and woke up sore. My toes were sore due to improper fitting of my shoes and a longer middle toe. Grrr. We had a quick breakfast before readying some day packs with food, water and supplies for the hike ahead of us. In order to get to the creek below Mooney Falls you have to climb down the canyon wall. If you are familiar with bouldering, cantoneering or are just not afraid of heights, it will be no problem. But if you don’t usually do this type of activity it can be challenging. We made some new friends on the way down that were adept to climbing challenges and thus offered some advice on getting down the slippery steep walls. I had done a ton of research before going so I knew we would encounter chains on this climb. I read that we would benefit from gloves for the task so we brought some. I packed my paddle gloves (for kayaking) which I would definitely not skip during any repeat attempts. I think any type of gloves offering grip would work here, but my paddle gloves were fingerless and I felt better about my fingers being free. The climb down, for me, was exhilarating. I will let my friend Nicole tell her version of the climb down in her own way, if she chooses. ;) But anyway, I thought the cave, climbing, chain and huge ladder at the bottom were fun.

The bottom of Mooney Falls was where it was most fairy like, with the rope swing from a tree in the middle of the creek to a lower pool. And that pool had a tiny little cave under a slight waterfall that you could swim under. There was a lot to see here and I could have hung out all day if not for the fact that we wanted to get to Beaver Falls. We played in the water, tested the rope swing a few times, played in a waterfall cave and then decided to head out. But not before realizing the squirrels were relentless at the falls as well as camp, due to a near incident including a mischievous little guy that almost got into our packs.

So we set off for Beaver Falls, another 5 miles or so downstream. The hike to Beaver Falls crossed the creek a few times, went through a canyon that was filled with what looked like wild grapevines (no grapes), a few more really cool pools, small waterfalls, another ladder, and just things you cannot imagine unless you have seen them for yourself. I even got to climb up on a small cliff and jump into the wading pool of cool turquoise water below. Every moment was dreamlike. With the exception of my poor feet, which were suffering through breaking in a new pair of water tennis shoes that were a half size too small. My middle toe was taking a beating. A mistake I vow not to make again. It’s been two years and two of my toenails are still tweaked.

Beaver Falls was no exception to the dreamy ethereal space we were fortunate to wander. This was, no doubt, the most amazing adventure I had the opportunity to partake in.

Further down the creek was the confluence between Havasu Creek and the mighty Colorado River. I wanted to keep going so badly, but the day was getting away from us and we needed to head back to our camp, near Havasu Falls. I hope to hike all the way to the confluence one day when I return. But I take solace in the fact that I will, at least, get to see the confluence from the river side in August 2021 when I take part in white water raft trip 225 miles through the Grand Canyon. [I not only got to see it, but my white water rafting group stopped there for a few hours.  I didn’t exactly forget how amazing  Havasu Creek was, but it definitely knocked my socks off again.  The confluence was amazing, the creek and its high orange walls were beautiful and swimming in the cool clean water was a nice change from the raging river that was tinted to look like chocolate milk, thanks to some recent rains. I do still want to hike to the confluence from Havasupai though.  But to be fair, I want to do everything!]

Day three we decided to walk to Havasu Falls and just enjoy the day lounging around the pools and making new friends. Including some more squirrels…

The four days the tribe allows you to book in the Havasupai is just not enough time in this stunning oasis that is secluded from most of the outside world. I was lucky enough to snag dates in the 2020 to go again. But the Covid pandemic hit and the Supai suspended all tourism to the area until 2023.

And so I sit on my reservation to return to the most beautiful place on the planet (that my eyes have seen anyway) and await the reopening of Havasupai. [Havasupai has re-opened.  I had to sell my reservation due to an injury and not being able to go, but I am hopeful still, to go again in the future.]

As always, when you venture out, wether it is to a National Park, Tribe, BLM land, or just someones backyard, please respect our Earth and the enviornment you are in. Use the pack in/pack out rule. And if you have to potty in the wild, take care of it appropriately. LEAVE NO TRACE.