Havasupai Falls

All right. Here it is. Finally. I am sorry it has taken so long. Although, I don't know why I am apologizing because I am sure none of you care what so ever. So without further ado here is a recap of the trip.

Trent and I decided to head down a day early and stay in St. George. We were able to sleep in, go running, and get a little shopping in too. I also wanted to hit up H & M, so we headed off to Vegas and met up with Jake and Candice. Kind of disappointed in the selection at H & M, but I still ended up buying some stuff.

We ended the night at Max Brenner. I was so excited! I fell in love with this place in New York and couldn't wait to try it again. And let me tell you, I loved every second of it.

Now on to the real reason for the vacation. Trent and Jake thought it would be a great idea to hike to Havasupai Falls. I thought it sounded awesome as well, so Jake planned it out. We left early Friday morning and started the 4 hour drive to the reservation.

Here we are getting ready to descend. It is a 10 mile hike to the camp. And let me tell you, that was the longest 10 miles of my life. Seriously one of the hardest things I have ever done.

We look happy in all these pics, because most were taken within the first 2 miles...

By the end of the hike we all looked like this:

And since we were part of the 1% that packed their own gear in the whole 10 miles, by the time we got to the campsite there weren't any spots left. However, this worked to our advantage. We made our own spot by carrying a table across the river (yes, AFTER hiking 10 miles) and had a spot all to ourselves. It turned out awesome.

We set up camp and basically did nothing. We were all so exhausted we could barely walk. Sitting around was heavenly though.

The next day we decided to hike to the falls. We were all walking like 80 year olds, but it felt could to get moving again.

Here are the only pics we have from Havasu Falls. It was damaged in the floods a couple years ago and just wasn't as impressive as the others.

We spent most of the time at Mooney Falls. It was a pretty steep and scary hike down a cliff, but once at the bottom it was amazing.

Now these falls were cool.

We hiked down the river and there were tons of little water falls and cool places to chill. We also found a killer rope swing. And of course there was time for goofy pics.

Here are some action-packed shots and not so action-packed shots.

Another fun part of the trip were the critters. We had visitors during the night and while we were out hiking. The dang squirrels chewed through our bags, strings, zippers, and outsmarted us every time. We were lucky to have any food left at all.

But the worst visitor came the first night. Trent woke up to something crawling on his leg:

Trent and I didn't pack a tent in and after the tarantula episode I couldn't bring myself to get back on the ground. I spent the rest of the nights on a picnic table, where a ring tale cat would jump on me from a tree. Lets just say that Trent and I didn't get much sleep

And the other animals pictured are Hole and Donkey. Jake caught a frog and named him Hole. Why Hole? Because of the dang animals and all the holes they chewed in everything. Donkey was a random dog that hiked the whole 10 miles out of the canyon with us. It was a pretty cool dog.

As we were posing for pics Trent thought he was hilarious. We call the top right The Engagement.

Obviously I didn't think it was as funny. ;)

But I can't help but love this guy:

And we had an amazing experience.

In the most amazing place.

So amazing, in fact, that we woke up at 1:00 am to hike out. We got to the trail head just as the sun was hitting it. It was so pretty. And aren't we just as pretty after 3 days of camping, 20 miles of hiking, and 10 hours of sleep?

After we got back to Vegas we all took showers and headed to our new favorite place that Jake and Candice were nice enough to introduce us to, Raising Canes. It is the chicken In & Out and it is oh so good. Just add one more thing that I will go to Vegas for!

So, the trip may have been hard and the critters were annoying, but in the end it was so worth it. I loved sitting around, hiking the falls, being the only ones on the river, filtering water, eating dehydrated meals, hanging out with J & C, being with Trent, swimming, and the 20 mile hike (I can say that now that it is over). Thanks Jake and Candice for the trip and thanks to ALL those who helped with the Hoard while we were gone.

And here are just a few pointers for those who are thinking about doing this adventure, which I would strongly recommend to anyone.

*Bring a tent

*Just bring a sheet to sleep in-not a sleeping bag

*Bring anti-critter bags for food

*Get to the reservation the night before and sleep over, so you can start hiking in early

*Hike in on Sunday. When we woke up Sunday morning the place went from 100 campers to 10.

*Bring a whole extra day's worth of food for Trent, that is if he is with you...

*And, maybe the best advice, pay the $80 to be helicoptered in ;)