Good day to you all! As promised, here is my recap of my day of tagging along with Papillon Helicopters on the Havasupai Heli-Hike Tour in July of 2008.
Situated in a side canyon West of Grand Canyon National Park, Havasu Canyon is home to the Havasupai Indian Tribe, and the blue-green waters of Havasu Creek, whose most famous features are two impossibly high, amazingly beautiful waterfalls that cascade down multi-tiered travertine walls before joining with the Colorado River below. The only way to get here is by horseback, foot, or helicopter, neither of which comes easily or cheaply, but once you get there, you’ll understand why that is so, and as long as you know what you’re getting into (sound familiar?), you probably won’t have any qualms about it afterward. I certainly don’t.
For my trip to Havasupai, I packed a camera, towel, sarong, sunscreen, Tevas, a sandwich, some snacks, and a liter of water in my trusty daypack, that actually used to carry my books to school more years ago than we’re going to discuss. I packed my lunch in one of those plastic sleeves that sheets and such come in from the store. I find those handy for traveling and it worked out well for this trip too. I also brought a large (2.5 gallon) Ziploc bag and a few small ones plus an additional couple of plastic bags for packing out trash. I stayed in Page the night before and left at 5.45 AM due to the road construction I’d heard about. Sure enough, those guys were out setting up at 6:00 AM. I got stuck in the construction zone for about 20 minutes (Editor’s note: the construction that the author refers to has since been completed, but you should always double check any route you take to see if construction is taking place. Try www.az511.com). With a quick bathroom break at Cameron, the drive from Page took 3 hours flat.
When you get to Grand Canyon National Park Airport to check in for the trip, Papillon has you sign an extensive release form that addresses logistics, potential dangers of the trip and the fact that the horses are not very reliable, namely that even if they are able to take you down to the falls, you can’t count on them coming back for you, etc. I was aware of this, so I chose to just hike it. They also give you a rough map of the trail and Village. Several people expressed concern that I was a woman traveling alone and advised me to be careful, which I promised I would do.
At 9.40 AM, we departed for Havasu Canyon. The flight over is about 30 minutes and goes straight over the Kaibab National Forest. It does not go over the Grand Canyon at all, except for when you begin your descent to Havasu Canyon; then they do some serious “yanking and banking” which was an absolute hoot! The “helipad” at Supai is actually an open field across from the General Store and Café.
When your chopper lands, a member of the tribe opens the door, helps you out and leads you to the
Supai Lodge where you register and pay your tribal entry permit (if applicable). If you book the horses, this is also where you pay up and mount up. We were then told it’s “past the church, turn right and keep right.” I had not noticed the church, so was a bit bewildered, but luckily, a young Australian gentleman who was on the flight with me had been there before, so he knew where to go and I kind of “shadowed” him and his hiking companions. Signage here is minimal at best, but if you follow the signs to the campground, you’ll also get to the right place.
The trail to the falls is actually longer and more difficult than I pictured it. First off, it’s rather deep sand. Secondly, it’s Grand Canyon hiking on a smaller scale – the easy part comes first, the hard part comes at the end when you’re already exhausted. The distance to Mooney Falls, the tallest of the bunch, is 2.8 miles. It’s recommended that people go out to Mooney first, then make their way back via Havasu and Navajo Falls so they get the hard part out of the way first. By the time we set off, it was already 100° out, and quickly I was feeling the heat. I was glad that I had my old faithful wet bandanna, but I couldn’t wait to get in the water. Once you get out of the village, the trail, creek and canyon are unbelievably beautiful. I’d heard this placed described as “looking like a movie world” and that description is apt. The water really does flow blue-green, it almost looks unreal, but it’s real. The plant life makes it look more like a jungle, without the humidity.
There are many places where the trees form nice shady canopies that provide a wonderful respite from
the sun, but shade is hard to come by at mid-day. About a mile and a half past the village, the trail starts to descend more sharply. As you approach Havasu Falls, 2 miles from the village, it starts to get really steep. At this point on the hike, I was feeling pretty wiped out, and the Australian gent had said that maneuvering to the bottom of Mooney Falls was quite grueling, so I elected to only go as far as Havasu Falls. Boy, did that water feel fabulous! It is cold (about 68 degrees), but not like the river (47 degrees year-round – EEK!). I had worn my swimsuit underneath my clothes and was glad I did that because there’s really no place private in which to change. I was also glad I brought a. my Tevas and b. a big Ziploc bag. You definitely need 2 pairs of shoes for this trip, one to make the hike in and another to wear in the water.
The “beach” around Havasu Falls is nice and big, but the mist sprays out quite far due to the sheer height and force of the waterfall, which makes the ground VERY muddy. Also, the bottoms of the travertine pools are very mossy and slick in some places and very sharp in others. I saw all kinds of people who were barefoot falling and cutting their feet. You also have to watch out for the current of the river. Even in the pools, it is stronger than it appears. I slipped once and for a split second, thought I was going to get pitched over Mooney Falls, but was able to grab onto a rock. I found a nice little spot to soak for a bit, have a few bites of my sandwich and watch the people – lots of folks form all corners of the world, and most of them having a ball.
Alas, the time went by too quickly as it tends to do in these situations. The literature that they gave us at Papillon suggested that you allow 1 hour to get back to the village; my “gut feelings” said make it 2, as we had been asked to be back at the helipad by 3:20 PM. A little after 1 PM, I decided it was time to head back. I put my muddy Tevas in my big Ziploc bag (dang, was I glad I brought that thing!) and changed back into my walking shoes (I was also glad to have brought an extra pair of socks, wished I had brought about 3 pairs because you will get sand in your shoes). I noticed that my water supply was getting low, even though I had started out with 2 liters (you drink A LOT in that heat). There is a drinking water source at the campground about ¼ mile beyond Havasu Falls, so I made a quick detour there to top off my bottle (and enjoy some shade) before making the trek back to the Village. This is also where you’ll find the only restrooms on the trail.
The walk up from Havasu Falls was, as I’d predicted, pretty hard, but I had hiked in the Grand
Canyon before, so I just reminded myself it was not a race and just plodded along slowly, stopping frequently to rest, eat and drink water. At this point, I concluded that the towel I had brought was a waste of space. In this climate, once you get wet, you want to stay wet. Once the most difficult part of the hike was over, I took every opportunity I could to stop at the creek and get myself soaked. That water is so refreshing, and I found many beautiful intimate nooks where I could sit quietly, take a breather, sip some water, grab a snack (which I was glad to have packed in that plastic garment sleeve) and just have a few moments to myself in the shade. There are some smaller waterfalls and swim areas tucked back amongst the trees, but they take a bit of doing to find.
As stated previously, signage is not that great, plus the topography of the creek bed has been altered quite a bit since a large-scale flood back in 1990’s. There were a few times also when the trail would fork and I wasn’t sure which way to go, so I followed the route with the heaviest tracks. Turns out a lot of these “forks” join back up with the main trail, so I wouldn’t have gotten lost, but still, a bit disconcerting when you’ve never been there and you’re by yourself. I arrived back at the Café with about 20 minutes to spare. I used the time to pop into the General Store and get some water, change back into my Tevas for the flight out and wet my bandanna back down.
While I was waiting for our helicopters, I witnessed a supply delivery to the General Store. Here’s an amazing fact about the Havasupai reservation: virtually all supplies here are packed in by mule or horse. There are no cars here. Some folks have motorcycles, quads, mini-tractors or souped up golf carts, but no actual cars because there are no roads, only dirt trails. It was neat seeing the supply train arrive in the Village, the kids all come out and watch and some help unload the horses and dole out the supplies to the General Store, the Café, clinic, etc.
Finally, our helicopters returned, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that instead of the Bell
helicopters that took us down, we would be riding the newer, more cushy Eco-Stars back to the South Rim. What a difference there is between the two choppers – the Bell (which is a very common type of helicopter) has a row of seats facing backward, which doesn’t detract from the quality of the flight at all; on the Eco-Star, all seats face forward, plus they’re larger and more generously padded. The Eco’s windows are bigger, and the seats are kind of raised up (their terminology is “stadium style”). The biggest difference is the noise – the EcoStar makes a LOT less of it due to its tail rotor design. The aircraft switch isn’t always predictable, though, we just got lucky. The flight out was even more breathtaking than the one going in.
We arrived back at Papillon as the sunlight was softening just before dusk. *Whew* What a day and what an adventure! All in all it was very hot, sometimes scary, extremely educational, an experience beyond belief, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. For those of you considering the Havasupai Heli Hike, know that it’s by no means inexpensive: $500+ per person, but when you consider the alternatives, you find that they require a lot of advance planning (rooms and camping spots at Supai are reputed to book up a year in advance), a lot more physical exertion (a 10+ mile hike each way), a lot more time out of your schedule (the trailhead at Hualapai Hilltop is out in the middle of nowhere, and you want to start that hike early, so you’d need to book overnight accommodations for both topside and down below), and when you do the math, the cost would probably come out roughly the same. In my case, I’d always wanted to see the falls, I’m not getting any younger, I had the time (and the money), and that was that. In conclusion, though the day had its share of ups and downs (in both the literal and figurative sense), Havasupai is a place that will get into your blood and leave you yearning to go back. Beauty like that always does.
Havasu Canyon is presently closed to visitors after a massive flood damaged the area in August of 2008. It is tentatively scheduled to reopen on May 1st.
Have a grand day folks!
P.S. Is there a Grand Canyon vacation planning question that GrandCanyon.com flat out refuses to answer? Yes! Stay tuned to find out what it is.
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