We just returned from a great trip to Havasupai. Early in the year I set a goal to take Jessica but she has never been backpacking.  We did a pre-hike to Reavis Falls to kind of break her in.  She's been training for her triathlon, which has been great preparation getting her in shape for Havasupai.  Instead of just the two of us, I wanted to have a few more come along.  My brother-in-law David and his sister Sharilyn ended up being the other two to round out our party of 4.  I've been watching the weather and flood situation for the past month.  They'd been having flooding problems almost every week, so I was really crossing my fingers in the days leading up to our departure.  We left after work on Thursday and headed up there, arriving late.  The girls slept in the van while David and I laid out on the ground.  The weather was good, but the flies were not.  That coupled with people arriving by car and by foot all night long made for a miserable attempt at getting any sleep.

We got up at 4 AM and hit the trail by 5.  The hike in wasn't too bad.  I was determined to finish hiking before the sun hit us.  We made it all the way to the confluence of Cataract Canyon before the sun hit us and by then, we were almost to the village.  I scoped out the new waterfalls that had been created since I had been there last in 2007.  Havasu Falls wasn't as majestic as back then.  The biggest surprise was the campgrounds.  The whole campground area had really been thrashed.  Many of the trees were heavily damaged or dead.  The water had split into multiple channels and spread across the canyon floor, taking up precious camping real estate.  Most of the foot bridges had recently been washed away recently and the lower campsites looked like a flood plain.  After a period of mourning, we set up camp.  Oddly enough, we didn't do a whole lot the rest of that first day, instead just resting and relaxing.  We did explore a nearby cave and played frisbee in the dark with David's glow-in-the-dark frisbee.  Jessica rigged up a homemade hammock, which became an instant hit with Sharilyn.

The next day we headed down to Mooney Falls for some fun.  After lunch, we decided to take on the hike to Beaver Falls.  I had never been to Beaver Falls in my previous two visits, but I soon learned that it is a very different hike, wading through the water frequently and trudging through shoulder-high grapevine.  It was quite a hike and we lost the trail a few times.  We nearly passed the falls and kept going straight for the Colorado, but fortunately ran into some hikers.  I was nearly at a turnaround point though, due to time and the coming darkness.  We managed to find the falls and snap a few pictures before heading back.  That was indeed a very exhausting day.

On our last day, we played in the upper falls.  The most enjoyable was Rock Falls and we jumped off the top of the falls inot the water.  It was a higher jump than expected when you first take the plunge, but still quite a bit of fun.  We got some good pictures and video.  As we headed back for lunch and to get ready to go, the locals came through, warning of a coming flash flood.  Here we go again, I thought.  My previous visit had ended the same way.  We hurried to clean up camp and eat.  Fortunately, the flood warning turned out to be a false alarm, but it certainly helped us to hurry up faster.  The cloud cover made hiking out a little earlier more pallatable.  Despite nagging issues like swollen knees and torn up feet, our little group did very well on the way out of the canyon.  We kept a solid pace and tackled the switchbacks in a timely manner.  Only 5 hours of driving for me after we finished.  I nearly panicked when I saw a giant elk standing on the edge of the road on our way back.  All in all, it was a lot of fun.  Initially, I was very disappointed in the flood damage, but I soon realized that this was not a worse Havasupai, but a different Havasupai.  We just have to enjoy each visit, as it may change significantly before the next visit.