March 4, 2016
Rose, Judy and Mom head out
on flights back to Minnesota in the early am.
Jim had flown in on Thursday night.
Taking the day to relax and wait for Heather & Lisa coming in tonight.
March 5, 2016
Picked up Amy in the morning
and headed to Camelback Mountain for a morning hike. Camelback is a strenuous 2.4 hike roundtrip
climbing up boulders in several parts of the trail. We all made it and enjoyed great views at
the top.
Quote from a fellow hiker:
“Not everyone is here. You are here getting exercise and not sitting
on your couch.”
We left Camelback and headed
to Tucson to visit family. That night
they took us to the Gaslight Theatre and we got to see Cisco Kid.
Great Show! Great Cones!
March 6, 2016
We spent the day relaxing and
visiting with family and just hanging out all day.
March 7, 2016
We left Tucson this morning
around 1030AM and started heading toward Williams where we planned to spend the
night. Along the way, we stopped in
Sedona to see the church on the rocks (Amy had never seen it) and then we hiked
the Bell Tower. This was a great hike
and a nice preliminary hike for our big hike into Supai. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner and then
made it to our hotel in Williams by 630PM.
March 8, 2016
Big day today! We headed out of Williams at 730AM to head to
the rim of the Grand Canyon (2.5 hours).
When we arrived at the rim,
we were amazed at the number of vehicles at the trailhead to Supai. We found a parking spot and unloaded what we
plan to bring with us to the bottom of the canyon. Less is best!
Fortunately, we had a lodge
room waiting for us at the bottom so we did not have to transport too much
camping gear.
We hit the trail! We had heard the first 2 miles were the hardest
(steepest) and then it would level out.
That was true. The top part of the trail had 22 switchbacks
before we reached the lower part of the canyon.
For the most part, the trail
was wide, but we had loose rocks, sandy soil, boulders and just generally
uneven terrain. We took our time and
snapped numerous photo opportunities on the way down.
The temperature was perfect
for our hike, but once we reached the sign for Supai we were ready to be
there. Well, we continued to walk and
walk and walk and walk until we finally reached town. Then the lodge could not be at the beginning
of the town, but at the farthest point.
We were ready to be there and put our feet up! It took us 4 hours of hiking before we
reached out room (225PM). Aah – to lay
down and put our feet up was pure heaven (and kick off the hiking boots).
After a half hour rest, we decided we wanted to get a glimpse of some of the falls that we came here to see.
I know crazy, right! We plunked those heavy hiking boots on and
headed down the trail. We saw Navajo
Falls, Fifty Foot Falls and the famous Havasu Falls. Breathtaking!
16 miles (36,000 steps) today
– a full day
March 9
We got up and headed to the
cafeteria (local restaurant) to have breakfast and then hit the trail. Unfortunately, we got behind a very large
group and breakfast took awhile. When we
received our food, it was very good and then we were off for a full day of
hiking.
We revisited the falls we had
seen yesterday and snapped a few more pictures.
Havasu Falls is located in/near the campground area. The campground area is a “loose” term,
meaning set your tent up wherever you want.
Your campsite could be right on edge of the Falls!
Then we were off to Mooney
Falls (located on the north side of the campground). This Falls is hard to get to and the sign
says “Descend at your own Risk”. And
we were off and on the trail…..
To get to Mooney Falls we had
to go through two tunnels and climb down ladders hanging onto chains. It was a 200 ft. drop hanging over the side
of the canyon. The final steps were
slippery from the spray from the waterfalls.
This falls cannot be seen from above, so the hike was necessary for the
viewing. Mooney Falls was definitely
worth the hike! Our group had planned to
rest and hang out here, but instead we got excited and wanted to see Beaver
Falls (3 miles further).
On our way to Beaver Falls,
we saw a huge patch of wild grape vines, we had to cross wooden planks. The path required us to cross the river
multiple times via taking our shoes off and crossing and in some places they
had logs (floating bridges) that we utilized.
We also came across wooden ladders in numerous locations that required
us to climb up/down to continue on our journey.
It was the Amazing Race!
Beaver Falls was
beautiful! We stopped here and had our
lunch, chatted with the ranger and took some pictures from various
locations. Lisa and Jim decided to take
an alternate way back that required them to cross in the water to the other
side and climb up the canyon wall and another ladder. The rest of us went back the way we had
come. We met them down the trail on the
top of the falls.
We headed back to Mooney
Falls and did the trail slightly different going back, but we still had to
climb up the ladder with the chains and slippery rocks and back through the
caves.
16 miles (36,000 steps) once
again.
March 10
We got up and planned to hit
the trail by 630AM to head back out of the canyon. We ran into a group in Supai waiting for the
campground office to open. They had
descended down into the canyon 300AM (totally in the dark). The office did not open until 800AM – they
were going to be there for awhile.
We left early, as we wanted
to get out of the canyon before it was too hot. We didn’t focus on taking pictures, but on
getting out as quickly as we could (or that was my plan). I was determined to get out in 3 ½ hours, but
didn’t tell the group that. We plugged
along and passed a couple groups as we hiked along.
Heather counted 168 hikers
coming into the canyon and about 25 that were coming out that morning.
We stopped right before we
hit the switchbacks to take a nice break before we did this part of the trail.
This was the 22 switchbacks
and the steep part of climbing out of the canyon. We made the top by 10:00AM (3 ½ hours) and
the group was exhausted, but I seemed to have extra energy that they could not
believe. Jim, Heather, Lisa & Amy
kept teasing me that I was pushing them so hard so that I could get my Diet
Coke at the top. Well, that was not the
case (really), but I did have a Diet Coke in the cooler and it sure did taste
good!
It was time for a
well-deserved big lunch (Cracker Barrel), but we had to drive 60 miles to the
next town. It was the best meal
ever! Next, was on to Laughlin to meet
up with Jim and Viv and maybe a little gambling….
Our group was tired, but I
still had lots of energy. I think they
were ready for bed by 900PM, but I kept going til midnight (11PM AZ time). The “bee” game was kind to me. Lisa stayed up with me to keep me company….
13 miles
We completed 45 miles in 48
hours.
March 11
Today we planned to go visit
the town of Oatman (old western town that donkeys run wild). On the way into town, we saw about 8 of them
along the side of the road. We even had
one that tried to come into our van window.
We never really saw them walking through the town, but maybe we were
there too early. We wandered the shops
and then it was time to head out to meet up with the Weniger family in Lake
Havasu.
Lake Havasu was about an hour
down the road and we planned to spend the night with Janice & Rudy (they winter there) and visit with
Carrie & Brian (live and work there) and Joe & Joanne (they came up
from Tucson). Oh, we had to take the
ferry across Lake Havasu so that Amy could knock off visiting California on her
list. The ferry stopped in Havasu City,
CA where they had a casino. We took the
roundtrip ferry (just for Amy)…. That
night we had a great Italian dinner at Carrie & Brian’s house.
March 12
Today they took us around
town to show us the sights including the London Bridge. They had great little shops down by the
water’s edge. We had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant and then
it was time for us to hit the road for Phoenix to drop the girls off at the
airport tonight. Phoenix is 4 ½ hours
from Lake Havasu, so we had a long drive ahead of us.
The girls had evening flights
and Jim and I hit the road for home in the van.
We stopped in Gallup the first night.
March 13
We got up early to continue
our journey home. We took turns driving
and then we decided to drive straight through the night. We arrived back home
at 830AM on March 14th. We
took a little nap and then got organized so that we were ready for work the
next day.
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