Havasupai

Sometime last year, I started hearing about Havasupai from a lot of different directions.  Sina said it was one of her favorite places in the world.   (She's been to a lot of great places, so that means a lot!)  A friend posted unbelievably beautiful pictures on Facebook.  It was even mentioned in the book my book club was reading right about the same time.  How had I never heard of this place before?  (For those who, like me, have never heard of it, it's near the Grand Canyon, on the Havasupai Indian Reservation.)  Clearly, with all of the buzz, it was a place that needed to be on my Go There Someday list.  Chris agreed and put it on her list too and we started making plans to go. 

Havasupai is 10 miles and about 2000 feet down into a canyon.  There are 3 ways to get there.  Some people fly in on a helicopter.  Some go by mule or horse.

Other people walk.  Other than an overnighter at Girls' Camp back in the day, I've never been backpacking and this seemed like a good time to give it a try.  It was hard, but not as hard as I expected it to be.  I think I could do it again . . . if the destination is worth it.  :)   I like to think I'm low maintenance, but it turns out I really like having my comfort items easily accessible.  Notice that I am not carrying my pillow, my way comfy sleeping pad, shampoo, my favorite camp chair, or a portable air conditioner.  This gives me hard core adventurer points.  Okay, probably not many, but at least a couple. 

The first mile and a half was lots and lots of switchbacks.  Then we hit the bottom of the canyon and went another 6.5 miles through beautiful redrock.

Almost there . . .

Almost to the village, that is. . .   We stopped there to check in and get amazingly wonderful cold drinks (funny how much more you appreciate cold Gatorade after 8 miles in the sun) from a little store run by a very sweet man who Chris immediately named Grandpa.  We continued through town and on toward the campground, which was another 2 miles.  By this time, we were getting pretty tired and this was a very welcome sight.

This was even better . . .

And finally we arrived at the campground.  We dropped our packs and headed for Havasu Falls for a dip.   Besides the beautiful scenery and the cold, refreshing water, the people watching here was very entertaining.  We quickly learned that if we saw a bunch of teenage boys doing something crazy, like jumping off the cliff behind us here, there was sure to be a scout leader or two nearby with a camera egging them on.

 Other, less daredevil-y folks, and even a dog, jumped off of this one.  One guy spent quite a while impressing his friends by jumping off into not one, but three inner-tubes.  I guess everyone has their super power.

The next morning, we headed for Mooney Falls. 

 I had heard about the descent to it and had been deep breathing and mentally preparing for a few months. I would have loved to have just looked from the top, but the only way to the next set of falls was down.  So into the hole I went. . .

Down the rocks and ladders . . .

And to the bottom.  This was taken not long after my heart started beating again.

Looking back up . . .

And on to Beaver Falls . . . The hike was beautiful.  It looked like the jungle in some parts and required several creek crossings and some rock hopping.  Only a little bit of it was scary. 

I can't decide if I liked the journey or the final destination more. 

 We spent most of the last day waiting for our turn on the helicopter.  That's right . . . We didn't hike out.  I am hard core enough to go without shampoo but I have my limits.  We got to see a bit of how the locals get their stuff in and out (this is a bunch of backpacks hanging from the helicopter which I somehow forgot to take a picture of),

and fend off an attack from a crazy, angry cane wielding attacker who was mad that we didn't let her friends cut in line.  Seriously. 

When we finally made it out of the canyon, we headed down to get our kicks (and dinner) on Route 66, then on to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The final leg of the trip was Kodachrome Basin State Park where we saw Grosevenor Arch

hiked in Willis Creek, a very cool slot canyon,

and checked out the rock formations at Kodachrome,

then headed home. . . exhausted and in awe of all that nature has to offer.

Austin

I've mentioned many times before that my favorite thing about geocaching is that it takes me to places I wouldn't otherwise go.  Austin, Texas is one of those places that I never thought of visiting but should have.  It's a great city with tons of parks, nice hiking trails, turtles, amazingly good food, and exceptional geocaches.  A perfect place to spend a long weekend.  Here are some of the highlights. . .

The main goal of the trip was to find a cache called The Necropolis of Britannia Manor.  It is a multi-cache, which means you have to find various information that will eventually lead you to the final spot.  We started in a cemetery looking for a grave that was right next to this one.  You might think it's a fake, but it's not!  It's in the Hogg family plot.  Rude parents!!!

 After we gathered all of the required information from the cemetery, we were hungry and tired so we stopped for dinner at Chuy's.  Chris wanted to look up some info on the computer but her battery was dead.  No worries, there was a plug on the ceiling near our table. 

The next day, we headed out to find the next stage of the cache.  It took us to the Laguna Gloria, home of the Austin Art Museum.  

One of millions of Austin parks was right next door.  This one was home to many peacocks who have reportedly been there since the 1930's.

From there, we climbed Austin's highest mountain (775 ft. above sea level), then headed to the final cache spot.  The path was pretty clear, but just in case, this hand pointed the way.

 Getting closer. . . Hopefully we will fare better than these guys.

We made it.  Chris is punching in the secret code here, completely unaware of the horde of daddy long-legs at her feet.

 The picture doesn't really do them justice.  There were millions!

With that mission accomplished, we had time to check out some other things.  We stopped for lunch at the Salt Lick BBQ.  They have a the biggest restaurant parking lot I've ever seen, and a patio where you can enjoy fresh-squeezed lemonade and listen to live music while waiting for your table. 


  It was totally worth the wait!  BEST BBQ EVER!  Here it is cooking. . .

In our travels, we kept noticing people kayaking in the river.  It looked like fun so we did it too!  We found a few caches along the way,

 and a very fun swing on Lady Bird Island!  Interesting that I'm wearing a life jacket in the swing but not in the boat.  Just noticed that. 

 That night we headed to Walnut Creek Park to do some night caches.  I started to worry when this was the trail marker.

Although it was well-named, we did make our way out without getting lost, and with only a little bit of poison ivy, and find several high-quality caches.  Phew!  Thank goodness for GPS tracks!