.Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you’ve been to (Havasupai)

This was a vacation worth remembering. Russell Patch, one of Tyson's best friends invited us to go to Havasupai with his family and some other friends from North Salt Lake. We had heard of the place but little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

We drove 7 hours to Vegas, stopped for some dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, saw the lights & fountains at the Belagio and then drove the rest of the night all the way to Arizona. Russell and Tyson were the drivers and had fun conversing on the walkies and trying not to hit the kamikaze rabbits while the rest of us tried to sleep. We started hiking about 4 or 5 in the morning, I don't remember exactly what time, but I remember it being super early. We started so early to try to beat the heat of the day.

It was a 10 mile hike, down hill to the camp site.

I've never backpacked before and I usually pack so much when I go on trips. Not this time. I brought as little as I could. I wore swim suits all day every day & slept with a towel for a blanket. Tyson carried the tent and food. I think I ended up with 20 lbs and Tyson with 30.

It was a beautiful hike, long, tiring, but really good to visit with everyone. We arrived at the Indian Village to check it and then learned we had to hike 2 more miles in SAND to get to the real destination. It was getting hot by that time we were all exhausted and ready to lay down.

This place is in the middle of the dessert, but amazingly enough it has the most incredible waterfalls. 3 huge ones and a few more smaller ones. We turned the corner and their it was, Havasui Falls. Breath taking!!!

We got to our sight and were all ready to nap, but friends that arrived the day before wanted us to go play, so we trudged along with them and went to play at Navajo Falls.

We set up our tent next to a gorgeous river that ran right through the camp ground.

We finally got a nap and after that and every day we were down in the canyon we played, explored, hiked, went swinging off ropes, ate mountain men food and loved every minute of it. Each night we would come back, eat and hit the sack. We didn't have campfires or lanterns and were wiped out from all the activity.

Some random memories:

1.One afternoon Janine and I went for a walk to the Indian village, the long 2 miler in the sand and on our way some children asked us to go swimming with them, we found a water hole and it was so much fun. We later found out they had wandered too far from the village and were going to get into lots of trouble. Sad.

2. I saw a lady posing upside down, on a rock in the nude getting her photo taken....ah!!! I made sure all the boys I was with didn't see anything.

3. One week before we had arrived a hiker had been murdered and we saw the murder scene all roped off. That didn't make me feel too safe.

4. We ran into Tyson's Uncle Wayne Haslem and his son Jordan. Random place to run into family.

5. One morning I woke up to find my Dad's camel back had been chewed into and the squirrel had eaten all of trail mix, m&m's included but he left behind the raisins.

6. U.S. mail still gets delivered to Havasupai on a pack mule. I thought that was pretty cool.

7. They had a tiny little LDS chapel and a Senior couple come in every Sunday by helicopter to help hold church.

8. Lasagna and blueberry cheesecake (just add water meals) were the best!

9. We did have porta-potty's, but they were not great at emptying them out so when they were full you were out of luck. I'm pretty sure that I just held it for 4 days. I'm not kidding. Not healthy I know, but what can you do.

The scariest thing I remember doing was hiking down to Moony falls. I did not feel very safe at all. I climbed down backward, holding onto some chains in the side of the mountain, hanging on for dear life. A large line of people were before and after me, going slow because it was so steep. I heard an 80 year old grandpa was doing it, gosh if he could do it, so could I and I did.

Tyson knew that I wasn't a huge hiker and I made an agreement with him, that if I hiked down with him, I could fly out with Janine Patch in the helicopter. It took Tyson 5 hours to hike out and all up hill with the packs & starting at 4 a.m. That did not sound fun to me. Our ride only took 5 minutes. It was awesome and well worth the fee.

When we arrived to our car we had fresh water & Costco muffins waiting for us in the trunk. They were warm from the sun and tasted soooo good after a few days of meals out of a bag.

We would love to do this trip again someday. It was hard work, but so worth it.

Isn't that how most of the good things in life are?

(June 2007)