INTRODUCTION
Havasu is a Native American Reservation located in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.
It has a population of less than 1000 and covers about 300 square miles
There are many blogs (this is the one we tried to follow) and vlogs about this and this is just one more that I hope adds things that I did not know or could not find in the aforementioned areas.
HOW IT HAPPENED
A very good friend of mine is a fitness, adventure, outdoors junkie. She has done ultra marathons to hiking the Dolomites, Volcanos in Guatemala, to Hyrox competitions and much much more.
She’d been wanting to do this 4 day 3 night Hike since the pandemic and earlier this year while having dinner with 2 of her friends (who also came on this trip) went on the website, registered for their lottery and was able to secure 7 permits @ $470 each.
Havasu Tribe opens up this hiking camping adventure for a limited time every year and it sells out FAST!! As mentioned, for an extra fee ($100 I think) you are enrolled in a lottery.
You pick some dates and number of people/permits and you pay. You are now the TEAM LEADER.
In March, she asked me what I was doing from May 6th to May 9th, 2024 and if I wanted to go on this adventure. I accepted and so glad I did because this turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience.
REGISTRATION DETAILS
Here is a link to all the information about obtaining a permit. You will need to read and dig. I had trouble understanding it but be patient. I am sure you will find everything you need to register for your own trip.
SUMMARY
- Saturday, Day 1: Traveling: From Atlanta to Las Vegas
- Sunday, Day 2: Traveling and Prep: From Las Vegas to Havasu Lake
- Monday, Day 3: Day 1. From Havasu Lake to Registration and Trail Start. 11 mile hike
- Tuesday, Day 4: Day 2. From Havasu Camp Grounds to Mooney and Beaver Falls. 9 miles
- Wednesday, Day 5: Day 3. Rest day. Optional Quest to hike The Confluence. 21miles
- Thursday, Day 6: Day 4. Pack up and hike back to Hualapai Hilltop (Staring point) 10miles
MY PACK AND EQUIPMENT
Let me preface this by saying if you have the budget, it’s worth going to REI or some place to find high quality LOW WEIGHT items. When you’re out in the wild, carrying your own food, water, and essentials; you’ll appreciate you spent the extra money.
Here is a list of basic things my friend made to help us. We met a week before with the others (7 in total. 5 of us live here in Atlanta while one live near Tampa, Florida and the other lives in East Tennessee).
THE PACK
I first ordered a Teton 65L pack than was small. According to the internet your pack weight should be no more than 20% your bodyweight. Be mindful about the weight of your items then widdle it down to if you really need it or not. I ultimately returned it and ordered the Teton 85L pack.
Weight: 5.8lbs
THE TENT
Again, I went the budget route and purchased the Forceatt Backpacking Tent from Amazon. it performed well. Just heavy.
This is a 2 man tent. What I really liked was that I was able to keep my pack next to me, out of the elements. I may opt for a 1 man to reduce weight but it’s nice to be able to secure your pack with you inside.
Weight: 5.5lbs
SLEEPING/MUMMY BAG
Went for the Teton Sports LEEF Mummy Bag, long version – I am 6’2″, 0 degree.
Weight: 4.2lbs
OTHER ITEMS
- Inflatable Sleeping Pad – 12.3oz. Maybe a little small but functional. I would recommend buying a portable inflator or mini air pump. Or possibly a foam pad.
- Trekking Poles – there are sooo many options for this. These worked perfect
- Stove with Ignitor – can’t go wrong with this set. So small and the built in ignitor is clutch.
- Two Cup Cook Set / One of our team had the Jetboil Stove and it was awesome. Maybe too big but well worth it
- Camping Spork – need something long because the dry meal packs are deep. This also has a knife and spark fire starter in the handle
- 5 Pack Dry Sacks – these sacks are awesome. There is different sizes and colors and I used them to designate food, clothes, medical, toiletries, etc. They are water proof. The bag itself folds up (take the air out first) and then bends and clips together for a convenient handle to carry and hang.
- Gravity Water Filtering System – this is a great set. It comes with he “Straw” filter. Doesn’t take long to filter water either. Fill up the “dirty” water, fold to designated line and clip for no spill. Comes with a sling to carry or hang. Just hang it up on a branch, attach to the filtering straw and let gravity do the work.
- 3L Hydration Bladder – this worked great. Never leaked. The only thing I would add/change is to have a nozzle that will allow quick release to fill up a cup or stove for water. Otherwise, you have to suck the water out of the bag. Not a big thing but one of the team had one that had a quick release.
- Multi Tool – has a mini ax, hammer, pliers, and other tools. Heavy but very useful for hammering steaks into the ground.
- Camping Pillow – this was clutch. Most people stuff their jacket with clothes to reduce weight.
- Water Purification Tablets – never used them but had them just in case.
- Silicone Collapsable Cups – didn’t need it since my stove had 2 cups in it. You will need them if you buy the JetBoil and not the Two Cup Cook Set
- First Aid Kit – you can probably piece one together but what I did get was Blister Aids but Moleskin pre cut is what one team member had. Also took plenty of Advil
- Hammock – super comfy
- Chair – I highly recommend splurging on the REI version that weighs 1lb with a back. This one was too heavy to and clunky to bring.
- Carabiners – to clip things to your pack
- Cord / Rope – I bought it from Walmart
- Headlamp and a flashlight – headlamp with a red light option is good. Super helpful if you have to set up your tent in the dark
- Smart Wool Socks
- Slippers or Slides
- Small JBL Clip 2 Speaker
- Uno and Playing Cards
- Solar Battery Bank – this one has 4 solar panels but…. Solar only works if you have 5 hours of direct sunlight and even then it never recharged fully. Plus we camped under a canopy of trees near a stream so we never had full view of the sun and you don’t want to leave it out in heavy traffic area for fear it may get stolen or walked on. I recommend a simpler batter bank. The 30,800mAh wireless portable charger. What I like about this one is it has wireless charging AND 2 USB 1 USB C outputs BUT it requires a USB Mini to charge it up. I took 2 of these plus the Solar one and only used the Solar and half of the other one to charge my Garmin Epic 2 watch and iPhone 12.
- Garmin Epix 2 – this is the top of the line hiking watch. You can use an Apple Watch but you will have to charge it everyday. The Ultra 1 or 2 will last 2-3 days for sure.
- Satellite Communicator – not necessarly needed but nice to have if something happens. This unit will track your hike and get you back to home base and serve as an SOS in case the worst happens.
- Tarp: either 1 big enough to set underneath the tent for extra water protection AND a “floor mat” before you enter your tent or 2 small ones for the floor mat and one big enough for your tent.
MEALS, SNACKS AND OTHERS
- There are so many dehydrated meals but the best ones can be found in the REI website. I particularly enjoyed the Peak 2 brand. I used the 2 servings
- Oatmeal Packs
- Tuna Packs – Plain and Flavored
- Peanut Butter – either jar or squeeze pack to save weight
- Cliff bars
- Fat Meat Beef Jerky
- Atkins Bars
- Nuun – these tablets provide electrolyte replenishment
- Gatorade gel drinks
- Jelly Bean Energy and Electrolyte
WHAT I LEARNED AND HOW I WOULD FIX THEM
- I would have spent a little more money, by going to REI, to get lighter better quality gear. Pack, Tent, Sleeping Bag, Chair, etc.
- Tighten shoe laces. My shoes were loose which gave too much play with my feet, especially my toes, which caused great pain and discomfort towards the end of Day 1 Hike. On Day 2, it dawned on me to tighten my laces. It was a game changer. As soon as I did that there was no more play, I presume the top of my foot comfortably absorbed impact and minimized foot movement. You want to get a half size up regardless. This left both my toes purple and bruised and I did get about 3 blisters. I will most likely loose the toe nails.
- Cinch up pack straps. There was a pair of straps on the top of the shoulders that were not tight causing a gap between the pack and my back which gave me severe soreness on my traps. Once I cinched and closed the gap the pain went away.
- Proper Pack Fit: You are supposed to measure from the pointy bone at the top of your spine all the way down to you waist hip bone/between the dimples and that is your torso length. You should tighten the waist strap on your hips to carry the majority of the load and make sure your chest strap is tight as well.
- Pack the heaviest items at the bottom of the pack
- My pack was around 45lbs but I did not factor 3L of water which pushed it well over 50.
TRAVEL AND PREP DAYS
I left Atlanta to Las Vegas on Delta at 7pm EST and arrived in Las Vegas at 8pm PST. We stayed at the Motel 6 near the MGM and it was really bad but we knew it was for only one night.
We drove to Lake Havasu which we thought was near the check in place, Grand Canyon Caverns, but was 2 hours away. We stayed at an Air BNB where we did a last minute pack adjustment and went to bed.
DAY 1
The check in as at Grand Canyon Caverns which is about an hour from the starting point.
We drove about 2 hours to Havalupai Hilltop which is the starting point of the Havasu Trek. We had to park about 1 mile from the starting point because it was full.
We arrived at Hualapai Hilltop and parked about a mile from the starting point. There were a lot of people there already. We secured our packs and began our descent to the Camp Site.
Visitors can choose to enter or leave the camp grounds via Helicopter. I believe the cost was about $100 one way and is first come first served.
The descent was rough, lot of pounding but then it leveled off and we took a snack break then a lunch break. Right around mile 8, we entered into the Supai Village where we did have cell service. The community has a store, cafe, school, church, and much more along with the helipad.
Visitors can also choose to have their packs brought in and taken out by Mule/Horse. ($200 one way and must be reserved in advance.
Havasu Falls is about 1.5 miles from the Supai Village. The trek there was ascending which made things a little harder.
There is a creek/stream that runs along the camp ground along with various Compost Restroom stations. The latrines have individual stalls, with a seat and toilet paper but no plumbing. Therefore, the waste goes into a plastic bag and you put mulch for composting.
We found a nice spot along a stream with rushing water where we set up camp.
WATER
We knew coming in we’d have to carry our own water and luckily there was a spring available.
Technically you can drink from the spring but most of us decided to take an extra precaution and fill up “dirty” bags to have it filertered
We set up camp and had our dinner before we turned in. Dinner consisted of heating up water then pouring the hot water in our dehydrated food packs.
DAY 2
We woke up and had breakfast. Our goal today was to do Mooney and Beaver falls. The guide said 4 miles round trip but we were mistaken unless we took a wrong path.
AllTrails LINK
Mooney falls was very close to our camp. From the top you had an excellent view of the falls. We had to descend through some caverns and steep walls and stairs with some chain railings. The interesting thing is that at the top there was a pile of gloves for anyone that needed them. I can tell you, they’re not needed but it is a tough descent. Foot placement was challenging and you needed some upper body strength to help you ge to the bottom
Once down, the journey began through beautiful sceneries with a “Jurassic” style trail full of lush growth and cacti
We finally arrived at Beaver Falls where there were pools among pools from the beautiful Waterfall.
On our way back we encounter some ram
We finally made it back to camp where we rested and prepared our dinner.
DAY 3
Day 3 was supposed to be a “16” mile side quest to THE CONFLUENCE. That is where the Colorado river meets another river. I had to take a rest day because my feet were in pain from the errors I made in Day 1 that I mentioned above.
Two of my team members went on the quest. They left at 4am with their essentials (water, snacks, food, stove, etc) and returned at 2:15pm. They said it was a 21 mile round trip instead of 16.
DAY 4
We woke up early to break down camp. 3 of us made the trek out while the other 4 flew out via helicopter. I believe the helicopter cost was $100 each / cash from the Suapai Village / a 2 mile hike from the camp grounds.
The hike back was much better since I learned from my mistakes. We stopped twice. Once for Snacks and then for Lunch with the occasional “pee” breaks.
The return is definitely more challenging because you’re ascending. The last 3/4 mile was the hardest because you’re back at the switch backs. Imagine being on a stair master with a 50lb weight vest for an hour.
SUMMARY
What an amazing experience. I could not have done this with out the facilitation, help and support of my friend Lindsey.
Pictures do not do it justice. The trek was tough but well worth the pain. I learned so much and being off the grid was nice.
I definitely recommend this to anyone with an adventurous spirit.