Almost Heaven

May 7 - 9, 2007

The next trip up was absolutely amazing! No trips to the hospital, but still way fun anyways. I had been to Havasupai before and I wanted to go again, but this time I went with a bunch of my friends. There were about 15 of us there: Luke and I, Lu, Kris, and Crystal, Kate and Eric and 2 of their friends, Dan, Nate and Emily, and then 2 of Lukes friends. It was definitely a party.

The trip started out with us meeting up in Vegas at an In N Out Burger (mmmm) and then caravaning to the trail head which was about 6 hours away. We decided that we wanted to get to the trail head around midnight so that way, we could sleep in the parking lot and then get an early start. The trail head is probably 2-3 hours away from anything so this really was the best way.


Havasupai is this little Indian village near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon that is about a 10 mile hike in. This picture shows the group. Unfortunately, it is really washed out. I still think it is a fun picture though. It reminds me of the old time pictures. Anyways, back to the hike...It starts out with probably a miles worth of switchbacks all the way down to the bottom of a dried up riverbed. The scenery down there is just amazing. This hike is in my top 5 for sure. We planned on camping down there for 2 nights so we had to pack everything in with us. As you can tell from the picture, we had a lot of stuff on our backs.


My favorite memories from this trip were:

• Eating In N Out Burger in Vegas




• Getting carded at the last casino in Vegas and seeing Tina Turner in drag singing "What's Love Got to Do With It." Walking out of the casino and finding out that the Jeep is dead
  
• Having the Jeep start up after lots and lots of prayers and actually making it to the trailhead without any other car problems

• Driving down a dirt road in the middle of the night on the look-out for giant elk/deer/monsters. No kidding, these animals are huge with huge antlers!! We all had walkie-talkies and were warning others of their locations. Then as we make a turn, I almost hit 3 very sickly looking horses just wandering the plains...very creepy (Sorry, no pictures of these animals...I don't think they would show up on film anyways...)
  
• Spending the night in the middle of a dirt parking lot, only to wake up to the smell of mule droppings and wild dogs trying to climb in your sleeping bag




• Starting the 10 mile long hike down to camp

• Almost getting killed by the pack mules running up and down the trail. They will not stop for anything so you better be sure you can jump out of way real quick
  


• The very cool scenery that was everywhere down there. Look at the green on that tree! We are in the middle of the desert for crying out loud


• Seeing the Indian Village of Havasu and realizing that there was only 2 more miles to go. This is also where we saw the heli-pad...
  


• Walking around the corner, dying from the blisters on our feet and being so dang hot and seeing this: Havasu Falls

• Finding the rope swing at Havasu Falls (yeah, thats my Luke jumping. Doesn't he look good?)

• Playing all day long in the most blue/green clear water you can imagine



• Jumping into the water at Navajo Falls. The water is a little on the chilly side, but the sun and the hike in made it perfect
  



• Hanging with all my friends
  
  
• Dehydrated measl...yummy! I know you are all very jealous
  


• Guarding our packs from the genius squirrels. They are smart and they don't give up for anything. The would literally walk right up into the middle of all of us and start chewing through the packs for the food. They even got some food from one of our friends packs, chewed clean through the zipper. We got revenge though when one of the squirrels climbed into another friends pack. That squirrel got pretty dizzy after he was done with it...



• Climbing through the mountain to get to Mooney Falls...This one was my favorite
  

• Instant Pudding and Scum tournaments
  


• Not having to hike out with our packs becuase a handful of the group decided to ride the mules up and out. Since they paid for a mule, we all got to pack out our packs on the mules...even though I have packed out all my stuff on my own before, this was definitely worth it.
  
• Luke's massive blisters...poor guy
  


• My not-so-bad blisters this time. But look at that chaco line...or is that just dirt...?
  


• Making it to the top of the switchbacks and living to tell the story. Finding an ice cold coke...there is nothing better than this...it was worth the 2 bucks!
  


• Getting shakes at some podunk little town called Peach Springs...it was the weirdest place where all they do is mess with you. It was fun though
  
• Getting to spend some time in Arizona with Luke and Dan. Scott driving down with one of his friends to meet us down there
  
• Going to a movie and not finding anything worth watching. Getting back to the Grand and it not starting at all
  
• Calling my cousin to come and bail us out. Bringing us tools and in the end, she locks her keys in the car. We had to leave the Jeep in the parking lot because it would not start. We tried to go to stores around the area and get a new battery but everything was closed
  
• Getting a new battery and having the car still not start. Luckily, my cousins friend is a mechanic and he came and helped us out. We eventually go the car started and from that point on, we didn't have any problems with the car
  
• Actually stopping at the Hoover Dam to take pictures. You would think that out of all the times I have driven through there, I have only stopped like twice

So that is the end of this trip...It was way fun and I definitely want to go back. If only I knew how to put up a dang slide show I would have more pictures up. Until next time.