Havasu Falls: The Day Hike and Helicopter Ride- Part 3

After THE BEST night of sleep of my life, the group gathered around 9am for a day hike. There was some miscommunication, however, and some folks in the crew just thought we were going about 1 mile although we ended up being gone about 6 hours.

We started the hike with getting our whim whams primed! We are standing at the top of the falls, what a rush! I was pretty freaked out, but couldn't resist the photo-op and rush.

This view was ridiculous! It was insane!

Our friend Trevor sat with his legs hanging off of the ledge but this was as close as I could get, on all fours!

The trek down to the base of the falls was very interesting... It looked like we were on Tom Sawyer's island at Disneyland, for real!

Going into the tunnel was pretty hairy...Also the second person going down the mountain was pretty scared and slow so we ended up hanging out in the tunnel for a while. There was a literal tunnel in the mountain and some man made steps for us to climb through. It was dark! Folks were turning around saying NO WAY, babe! Not us!

Here we are hanging out in the tunnel. Just waiting in the dark using our phone's flashlight for strength!

I love this one!

Almost out of the tunnel.

I have never thought of myself as claustrophobic but if I was, that would be the test! Just a disclaimer! Also, for the reader's information, I did not know that this hike included all that it did. It was a true adventure, not knowing what we were in for! 

Out of the tunnel! With a view!

Just chilling on the side of a mountain, with THIS VIEW!

After the tunnels was chains, wet slipper steps, and re-bar to hold onto. It was slow going due to the afraid of heights teenager, but it was PURE fun. I was actually surprised at how stinking fun it was.

This was my view. Check out how small the people are at the base of the falls (there are two, can you see them? It was a steep, sheer, cliff that we were repelling of sorts down.

This gives you an idea of what we were doing, basically climbing backwards down the mountain. 

This was the last part of the climb down. It was so so so much fun! The steps were slippery and it was physically challenging and provided such a rush! I LOVED it! The climb down was about 6 stories down.

Because why not cartwheel in front of an amazing waterfall!!!

And tree pose of course.

We had made it. To the base of Mooney Falls. It was only about 1/4 mile from our camp, but it took a bit to get down the mountain. We decided to follow on down the valley to get to Beaver Falls. It was supposedly 3 miles through the valley to the Falls. 

 This fabulous hike included 3 river crossings and many, many falls. We kept thinking that we were at Beaver Falls, as there were so many other ones along the way.

 SO, so, gorgeous. We could have stopped at any point along the way and spent the day.

 But we kept going. 

It was glorious!

One water crossing...

This was our last water crossing until the falls.

After we went along the river for quite a while, we came upon a viney canyon, for about 1.5 miles. It was amazing! It was in the hottest part of the day, but the canyon provided a perfect amount of shade.

3 water crossings meant shoes on and off and some folks had blisters but we kept on going!

There were some wild goats on the path!

They weren't very afraid of us!

And there was a random bridge to get us over a dip!

I was HIGH on HIKING!

'

We started coming out of the canyon and the terrain changed.

We kept thinking we were there. We weren't. We kept thinking it was just around the bend. It wasn't. 

BUT THEN IT WAS! And it was a bit dark due to the canyon, even though it was around 2pm.
 Everyone ditched their belongings and jumped into the pools.

It was a heavenly oasis of cool refreshing water.

The whole group jumped in!

They have a bromance thing going on. 

I spy Keomony floating in an innertube...

The hike back to camp went much quicker than the hike to the Falls of course. It was only about a 7 mile round trip hike but not knowing where we were going made it seem longer!

We were high from the falls, the cool water, and the beauty around us. Well I was high. Towards the end of the hike Chris started feeling off and as soon as we returned he sat and drank a ton of water and just felt drained.

It had been a long few days!


We all relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed hanging out, napping, hammocking, playing cards and shooting the stuff.

About half had planned on hiking the 3 miles out to the heli pad and the other half planned on hiking all the way out. This meant they needed to leave camp between 4-6am to beat the heat coming out of the canyon. 

Based on Chris's knee and his questionable not feeling well we decided to hike the 3 miles and then take the helicopter to the top.

The next morning we packed up camp and were on our way about 630am.

This is where Chris was really excited we were flying out...

This was where I decided next time I came back here I would swim naked in the falls-there was no one there at 630am on a Monday morning! It is ON next time! MY OWN PERSONAL FALLS!

We came up to the place where you take the helicopter. It was quite a cluster of hikers, all ran by a disgruntled man who really had no respect or care for us. Thankfully he wasn't in charge of flying the helicopter, just deciding the order of who gets on...

We were going to take separate helicopters just in case, but due to the uncool vibes from the dude running the show we weren't able to switch our places in line. I said a quick prayer as we boarded.

We had both been in a helicopter before but not together. And I think I was 12?? It was pretty fun but also freaky.... But I knew it would be over soon so I better enjoy it!!


 
 And then videos and photos were taken! It was a quick and also long 5 minute heli ride to the parking lot.

 It was gorgeous! And so fast! So funny to take a ride that was 5 minutes over the hike that took us 5 hours to backpack.

We were praying that the pilot and the copter was not going to crash but also trying to enjoy the ride...

This experience was so worth it! We had the kids with awesome family members, had friends helping get the kids to school--it was quite a team effort!

We dream of these waters, and it's only been a few months out.

When we landed safely from the helicopter ride, Chris's bag came on the next one. Unfortunately, my pack was buried underneath a huge pile of other bags (we assume) and it took my bag another 90 minutes to get out of the canyon... We ended up leaving the Havasupai Reservation at 130pm, with 735 miles to drive home before an 830am start time at work the next day. Chris had started to not feel well and but he drove the first 2 hours. I took over and finished the drive home. It was quite a long haul. 

One of my favorite parts of the drive home was just a few minutes on the road we saw two wild horses- thanking us and blessing our drive home. What a rad sight! We've had many desert adventures but I've never seen wild horses, so I checked off another magical bucket list item!

We will be back, Havasupai. First we've added a few other bucket list hiking trips with the same crew- possibly the Narrows, or maybe just some gorgeous places in our backyard-desolation wilderness is near and dear to my heart too. What an adventure!