Final Destination... I mean, Final Part of Havasupai

LAST DAY.
It was so nice to have so much time down there. We felt like we had time to do everything we ever wanted, but not too long to get bored. It was such an incredible trip, but it was time to come home.  We were missing our BABIES!!!

Bright and early on Friday, June 4, 2010 we had to send out 4 of our packs on the mules.  Thank you boys for carrying the other 4 packs so we girls didn't have to! : )

After taking down the rest of camp we headed towards the village and spent most of the day at the New Navajo Falls. This was the other waterfall on Luke's top two favorites.  It was a really fun waterfall to jump off of.  Or so they said. I just wasn't in the mood.

Both of us loved this waterfall for the room behind the 30 foot waterfall.  It was easy to access-- you could walk on rocks to it instead of swimming.  You walked through the heavy down pouring water on the ends (felt like a bucket dumping on your head) and then you walked into a huge room running the entire length of the wide waterfall.

A little way down the river from the fall was a deep, slow moving, pool that was really fun to jump into from the overhanging rocks.  Some kids from the village joined us!

Since this is a new waterfall created from the flash flood 2 years ago, it was interesting to see the soil developing into the lush green covered limestone.

It was a bit scary and somewhat hazardous to walk on because it was like stepping onto Styrofoam-- sometimes your footing was safe, other times the soil would dissolve out from other you.  Did I mention it was really sharp? And the water was swift?
Not a good combo!  We came out with some wicked scrapes and scratches.  And GREEN from sliding over the mossy rocks.  It was ALL worth it though!

I call this picture, scraped, bruised, burned (look at those lobster legs!) and GREENED

Beautiful turquoise water accented by a perfect rainbow.   

After we had played to our hearts content (and fully baked) we hike the rest of the 2 miles from the campground to the village.  It was 105 degrees.  With that heat we decided to wait until the trail was shadier before attempting the hike.  We began our hike around 6 pm. and made it to the switchbacks just after twilight.We got to the top around 10:30 pm.... wow. WE DID IT!

We drove 2 hours to the closest city (Kingman) and at 2 am we finally laid down to sleep in a hotel.  By 9 am we were on the road again and had a nice, looooong, ride back to Spanish Fork. If only we were done. We still had another hour and 45 minutes to see our little girls.  How happy we were to see them...... and if i dare speak for them, I'd say they were pretty happy to see us too!

What an incredible experience! We enjoyed it so much. The place was perfect, the company was fabulous, and the adventure was................. all we could have hoped and dreamed it to be!

Thanks everyone who made this trip possible. Blake and Chantel for arranging it, the rest of the crew for being such fast friends, and Luke, for working so hard in school so we could justify the trip..... and our wonderful parents for watching our little girls for us.

Havasupai Part 4

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Our last full day in Havasupai!  It was a nice relaxing day, soaking up the SUNSHINE (HOT sunshine) and lounging in the water! I don't have many pictures of this day because we were all running low on our camera batteries.
We spent much of the day at Havasu Falls.

The highlights-- The boys and Meshell cliff jumping, frisbee, relaxing on the floatie toys in the pools, Luke popping the whale and then "training it", Hiking to the old gold mine and of course, more relaxing in the water

Blake and Luke climbing behind Havasu Falls-- then jumping through

Climbing up to the second Gold Mine

Inside the mine. I was trying to blow a bubble for the picture. I didn't work. 

We also went back to Mooney Falls that evening. Like I said before... my favorite! It is so majestic!  Look how tiny Luke and I are next to it!

Highlights:
Swimming up along the cliff walls and finding a cool tiny cave

 Luke and Blake trying to get up behind the waterfall.... wasn't REALLY successful since the water drops over 200 feet.....Watching all of the floaty toys being sent over the waterfall, and the sacrificial killing of some of the floaty toys--the rest we gave to some random teenagers camped near us.

Did I mention how well we ate on this trip? Even though it was backpacking food it was delicious! Mountain House freeze dried meals were awesome!  But next time, we'll pack some "colder" foods. When it's over 100 degrees out, you just don't feel like hot stew or lasagna.  Either way, we ate well and have great memories of sitting around during meal time with our awesome friends!

And a perfect location for kissing the one you love. Wait a minute! Laura's lover was the strong silent type. 

Meshell had better luck with the frog. 

Havasupai Phase 3

 Day 4-- Beaver Falls HikeFour mile hike through gorgeous terrain to Beaver Falls.  You hike down the canyon past Mooney Falls (in the background).

Have some vines! There were entire valleys of this stuff! 

We found the old rope swing-which apparently pre flood was quite cool. It served us with a little entrainment but not like it would have been.  We played on it for a little while though.

Then we thought we had found Beaver Falls.  Come to find out, it wasn't!

Before we could get to the actual Beaver Falls we had to first pass the 1 random palm tree in the entire place (or the only one we saw)

and a fun little mountain we had to rock climb up (and repel back down)

At Beaver Falls:

This was one of Luke's 2 top favorite places.

Beaver Falls is a cool cascading waterfall that you can jump off (over) into the deep pool below.  It had a fairly swift current though so you had to swim kind of hard to get back out before the next cascade.

Under one of the cascades was a lush green room

 Another waterfall had a cave where you had to to swim under the water a few feet and then come up out into a small stalactite cave just large enough for 3 or so people's heads to come up out into open air.  It was a bit claustrophobic!   And I really don't know how that room got discovered... but it wouldn't have been by me! Luke had to pull me up through it because I was kind of scared. Glad I did it though!

Phase 2 of Havasupai

If you are confused-- scroll down to my previous post for Part One of our trip.  This is from the afternoon of Tuesday, June 1, 2010.

The morning was so hot, but by the time we actually got to swimming that afternoon it was quite cloudy and very chilly in the water.  Luckily this was the coolest day of the whole trip.  We spent a short time swimming at Havasu Falls and then ventured over to Mooney Falls. 

-Havasu Falls-

Freezing and trying to not get pushed around by the wind from the waterfall

-Mooney Falls--  Looks similar to Havasu Falls but twice as high!! 

awww

I heart red rock!

Looking over Mooney Falls --at least a 200 foot drop

This is what it looks like under the greenery around the falls. The water contains lime which creates the turquoise water and when it runs over the rock it forms these crazy formations.  This is a spot where the waterfall use to cover. We thought it looked like a a chocolate river solidified on it's way down. It was pretty cool looking!

Blake and Chantel next to Mooney Falls

"Descend at your own risk"--- must be scary creatures lurking beyond... oh wait. That's just Luke

Starting to see why it says to descend at your own risk! It's getting steep

Wet, steep limestone = need for chains and ladders!

Whew! We made it! We made the trek down to the bottom of Mooney Falls and back up a total of 3 or 4 times during the week. It was definitely a scary descent if you are afraid of heights! After the first few times, it got a lot easier.

This was my (Mary's) favorite of all the falls.  See where Spencer is walking? It gets gradually deeper until you are about thigh to waist deep but you can stand just mere yards away from the base of this majestic waterfall.  I loved standing there with the wind and mist pelting my face, just staring up--taking in all of God's handiwork.  It truly was a moving experience for me. I only wish I could have taken my camera up in there with me to show the view point I'm talking about.  Maybe it was the force of the wind, maybe not. But it left me breathless. 

The End of Part two-