Havasu 2009

I am so late getting these pictures up, but here we go... 2 weeks ago we went to Havasupai. We left our girls at Grandpa and Grandma Beutler's and were gone for 5 days. We drove all night Wednesday night and got to the trailhead about 7:00 Thursday morning. All 12 of us got our packs on and headed out. We had a great group and a great trip with everyone!

Here we all are from left to right - Caleb, Hayley, Jessa, Nat, Josh, Jake, Ladd, Bryce, Andy, Missy, Cade and Brady. 6 were Andy's friends, 2 boys from our ward and one of Josh' co-workers.

A few quick sidenotes - Josh, Hayley and I were the only ones that had ever been. Everyone did so great on the hike. It's not a hard hike, just a long 10 miles.

Ladd wore no socks when he hiked in.

Brady's hiking shoes got wet, so he hiked in Sandals.

I lost my water bottle somewhere along the trail.

Hayley got a blister within the first mile.

Josh is cute.

There were 8 boys and only 4 girls in our group - you go girls!

This is such a welcome sight after 4 hours of hiking. Last year there was a big flood that changed a lot of the scenery, but it is still beautiful and awesome in the middle of the desert.

My sis Hayley won the award for most blisters from the hike. I don't know why she got so many, but her feet were covered by the time we got to camp. There was also dirt inside one of the blisters which makes me hurt just thinking about it.

Duct tape to cover up her blisters - notice it's basically covering her whole foot. Crazy!

Once we got to camp that day, we all took it easy for a few hours.

Caleb slept...

Jake ate some food...

And we all just basically hung out for a few hours.

This is our camp right along the river.

Bathtime to get all the dirt and sweat off...

Happy to be there and be in clean clothes finally.

Most of us slept in hammocks instead of tents since it was so hot. After one night I ended back in the tent because the hammock wasn't for me - I realized that I never sleep on my back at home, usually on my side or front. I couldn't figure out how to do that without falling out of the hammock, so I tented it the rest of the trip. Everyone else loved their hammocks.
The next morning we headed down to Mooney and Beaver Falls. This is always my favorite part of the trip because there's so much to see and do on the way.

This is at the top of Mooney before we hiked down.

Through the tunnel...

and down the cliffs we went.

The trail down to Beaver Falls is in and out of the water the whole time. This first part we followed the river down and there are great little falls along the way.

Hayley is the queen of finding rattle snakes in Havasupai. This is the second year she's found on on the trail. We took this picture on the way back so it's coiled up and not bothering us. But on the way down it was right next to the trail and rattled at Hark when she walked by it.

The green meadow...

Back in the water...

Down more cliffs...
And finally we're at Beaver Falls. Josh, Jake an Bryce flexing for the camera...

Hayley and I found this great waterhole that we swam in for at least and hour. The current would take us around and around and we kept getting stuck in one part of it.

On the hike back to camp after spending a day at Beaver and Mooney, I kept seeing my shadow that looked like I had bull horns coming out the side of my head. This is what it looked like in real life - nice.

Sidenotes:

It rained while we were gone from camp - most people left rainflies off and sleeping bags out and things got soaked.

Brady got separated from us on the trail and somehow found us down the trail somewhere.

A few people (I won't mention names) got bad chaffing.

Hayley was scared to jump off the cliffs.

Caleb is claustrophobic and didn't go in the cave.

Bryce did backflips off every cliff he jumped.

Missy is a little scared of heights.

Cade and Jessa got swept away in the current and down a tiny waterfall.

Brady got bit by some mystery bug and his foot hurt the rest of the day.

Andy's shoulders got roasted.

We stopped at the rope swing and there was barely enough water to jump in but we did find a man who had broken his ankle and had to be helicoptered out.

The next day we spent some time at Havasu Falls. You can barely see them, but Josh and most of the group climbed up the cliffs and jumped into the falls. They also went behind the falls and tried to get some pictures with the waterproof camera, but it was too dark. I tried following them one time, but the waterfall was so loud and I jumped out. I'll leave the adventuring to Josh.

We hiked out Saturday and stopped at a new falls on the way toward the village. This falls got made when the flood came and rerouted the river. It ended up being our favorite one of the trip. This is the sign we saw when we got there...

And this is what we did about it...

Ah yeah!!! Josh, Hayley, Caleb and I.

Our group...

When we left Rock Falls it was about a mile to the village. It was about 4 in the afternoon so it was still pretty hot. Bryce tried to cover his face and let his back get a tan at the same time and Jake just looked like a Jew when he decided he didn't want to carry his bowl anymore.

After a long hike out, we chatted with this friendly man who was watching our bags at the top until we got there.

Sidenotes:

8 of us had our packs hiked out by the donkeys - the others carried their packs out.

We found another rattlesnake on the hike out.

The group of 4 that hiked their packs out left a little bit before us because they would be a little slower than us.

Josh hurt his ankle just before we left and had a hard time hiking on it.

Jake and Bryce were missing their girlfriends.

Hayley's blisters were hurting her.

Ladd wore socks for the hike out.

We got to the top just behind the group of 4. They told us later that one time they were resting and heard us coming around the bend. They all jumped up and sprinted the rest of the way so that we didn't ever catch them.

We had an awesome trip and loved the group we went with. Same time next year everyone?