Wow...all i can really say is wow. What a beautiful place. We drove down from Denver in one straight shot with only a few stops for gas and food on Friday...14 hours total to get there. It was a really beautiful drive through the rockies (green with rivers running high) to Moab (got to see slick rock and some of Arches NP) to Flagstaff (really a nice place...a lot of trees for AZ) and over to Seligman where we stayed the night before heading down to the trail. After looking at a map i think we may have passed through Seligman on our bike trip 10 years ago...it didn't look familiar, but based on the maps i saw i think we probably went through there...going to have to review some old journals and pictures and find out.
5:30 Sat we headed out for the trail..1.5 hour drive from Seligman (edge of civilization) to the trailhead (there is NOTHING out there). We were all pretty excited to get out there and get going. Most all the guys (of the 21 of us that went) sent their gear down on mules. I think there were 5 of us that packed our gear down the canyon. I haven't really done official back packing before (off the bike) with a pack, so i thought it would be fun to pack the stuff and see what its like. It worked out well although 10 miles proved to be a pretty long way with 35lbs on the back. The hike down was good but we were all good and ready to rest by the time we got to the bottom.
The campground is on a stretch of river with a waterfall above the campground (Havasupai falls) and a waterfall below the campground (Mooney falls). Both were pretty spectacular and a great place to hang out and stay cool during the scorching heat. It was well over 100 the whole time we were there except at night.
The next day we went up to a new set of falls that was created during a 50 year flood that came through at the end of last season and carved out an entire new canyon and 2 new waterfalls. Pretty incredible that a river will do that during a flood. The falls were about 35-40 and made for great jumping. A number of us did some cliff jumping from there. Pretty sweet.
On day two we did the 7 mile round-trip hike to Beaver falls below the campground. It was pretty amazing to see the oasis and beauty along the river all the way down. The combination of the water and heat makes for pretty ideal growing for the plants down there. Beautiful. The falls were different than the others in that they weren't a giant waterfall off a cliff, but rather a series of falls into pools that went one right into the next about 6 or 7 times. It was a hot and difficult hike that required using ropes to get up cliffs a few times and a lot of rock hopping AND the only snakes we saw on the trip turned up on this hike...a rattler and a kingsnake. Pretty great hike.
The hike out wasn't too bad...we got an early start and made it to the top just before it got REALLY hot. It was still a pretty good haul for the 10 miles out though and the switchbacks in the last two miles were tough, but definitely worth it. I decided to the let the mules do the work of hauling my stuff out since i hadn't done the hike before and i'm glad i did...it would have pretty near killed me i think. There were a few guys who did it and did just fine...amazing.
Overall...great time. Good bunch of guys, got to know them better...beautiful place....more sodium than i need to eat for the next year (we did freeze-dried MREs while we were down there...not bad really...i was surprised...but pretty much a heart attack in a bag :), and good relaxation (outside of the cumulative 40 miles of hiking we did while there). We all agreed that 14 hours is a LONG time in the car in one shot. If you ever have the chance to make the trip there you should...definitely a unique place with water that looks like it belongs in the tropics. The limestone coats the river bottom and gives it the crazy blue color.
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