Havasu-la-la
So on my way down south I ran into old friend/roomate/co-worker, Josh Higham, who is currently living in San Francisco. He told me that he and his sister were taking a trip to Havasu Falls in Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday. Josh graciously gave me an invite and considering I am now dislodged from my life as I knew it, here was a chance to jump at.
The trip exceeded expectations. Havasu Falls is a ten mile hike into Cataract Canyon, which connects to the Grand Canyon. After 8 miles of red rocky desert the canyon meanders into a wide riparian zone where the Havasupai Indians maintain their village and gateway wide-eyed world travelers into the most lavish desert oasis in the country, possibly the world.
Below are the pictures and a brief narration of the journey:
It all starts at the Grand Canyon. We camped on the rim the night before and after our hike. There is a reason people go to this great hole in the ground, and that reason is the world-famous tour guide, Lucy Fur Wagner...
Camping at the rim was like camping in a meat locker, but it the pain was muted by Erika's brilliant cooking, and the joy of watching Lucy chase the tenacious ravens away from her food dish between mouth-fulls.
The next day we drove three hours to the hilltop trail head and began our decent into this:
A mile or so past the village, the first waterfall jumps out at you and screams SURPRISE! as you make your way down what seems to be more dusty trail.
This was my favorite of the three falls, due mostly to the elfish surroundings.
Lucy and I went back the next day to soak it in and explore the caverns round abouts...
My favorite thing about our campsite was that it was right next to the most cozy spot on the entire planet. Swear to God. If you could bottle up this coziness and sell it as a TV dinner, the faithful would flock from far and wide. I cannot convey how badly I wanted to dig this spot up and pack it out. The pictures do not do it justice, but here is one of the spot and two of the view from the spot:
Can't you tell how perfectly cozy I am?
What else about camp... oh yes, Lucy found a boyfriend! We called him Boyfriend (and sometimes Max), until Lucy got tired of him and began to ignore the poor stray.
The next day we hiked deeper in to find the third waterfall. This sucker was enormous and required some cliff scuttling to reach the base. The danger! The peril!!
See the peril?!
But Josh and I made it down alive, and there was much rejoicing.
A zillion pictures of waterfalls were taken, but here's the one I'm most proud of:
And here's a shot from the top:
Speaking of tops, for some reason the locals didn't want anyone jumping from them...the penalty for doing so was pretty stiff.
I say if anyone jumps this waterfall and survives, they should be given $500.
Here and there in the nooks and crannies, more bits of random paradise...
The hike back was brutal, but we made it. And now the adventure done, it's back another grueling week at the office... le sigh.
(for larger versions of the pictures, visit my flikr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66728069@N00/ )
The trip exceeded expectations. Havasu Falls is a ten mile hike into Cataract Canyon, which connects to the Grand Canyon. After 8 miles of red rocky desert the canyon meanders into a wide riparian zone where the Havasupai Indians maintain their village and gateway wide-eyed world travelers into the most lavish desert oasis in the country, possibly the world.
Below are the pictures and a brief narration of the journey:
It all starts at the Grand Canyon. We camped on the rim the night before and after our hike. There is a reason people go to this great hole in the ground, and that reason is the world-famous tour guide, Lucy Fur Wagner...
Camping at the rim was like camping in a meat locker, but it the pain was muted by Erika's brilliant cooking, and the joy of watching Lucy chase the tenacious ravens away from her food dish between mouth-fulls.
The next day we drove three hours to the hilltop trail head and began our decent into this:
A mile or so past the village, the first waterfall jumps out at you and screams SURPRISE! as you make your way down what seems to be more dusty trail.
This was my favorite of the three falls, due mostly to the elfish surroundings.
Lucy and I went back the next day to soak it in and explore the caverns round abouts...
My favorite thing about our campsite was that it was right next to the most cozy spot on the entire planet. Swear to God. If you could bottle up this coziness and sell it as a TV dinner, the faithful would flock from far and wide. I cannot convey how badly I wanted to dig this spot up and pack it out. The pictures do not do it justice, but here is one of the spot and two of the view from the spot:
Can't you tell how perfectly cozy I am?
What else about camp... oh yes, Lucy found a boyfriend! We called him Boyfriend (and sometimes Max), until Lucy got tired of him and began to ignore the poor stray.
The next day we hiked deeper in to find the third waterfall. This sucker was enormous and required some cliff scuttling to reach the base. The danger! The peril!!
See the peril?!
But Josh and I made it down alive, and there was much rejoicing.
A zillion pictures of waterfalls were taken, but here's the one I'm most proud of:
And here's a shot from the top:
Speaking of tops, for some reason the locals didn't want anyone jumping from them...the penalty for doing so was pretty stiff.
I say if anyone jumps this waterfall and survives, they should be given $500.
Here and there in the nooks and crannies, more bits of random paradise...
The hike back was brutal, but we made it. And now the adventure done, it's back another grueling week at the office... le sigh.
(for larger versions of the pictures, visit my flikr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66728069@N00/ )