I uploaded almost every picture I took because some of our group didn't have cameras, some dropped them in the creek and they floated away and some of my good friends who wanted to come and see what has changed could not make it. Those of you who know me are aware that it was not a challenge at all to take 113 pictures.
This is us at Hualapai Hilltop getting a late start 6-8-09, 8:19 AM
Why not pose for another picture? We have all the time in the world!
And another! Terrilyn, Amy and Shawn join us too!
This huge piece of the mountain started to fall so Allen and Amy held it up for a while.
And I held this one up with one hand while my tripped over her own two feet! Tee Hee
At this point (11:21) Amy figured we were walking too fast so she decided to pick up some charcoal from an old fire on the side of the trail and write messages to everybody for the trip out in 3 days.
We arrived in the village at about 2:00. Lucky for us it was overcast and not too hot.
Flex em!
Um... again!
So up to this point there were no changes on the trail. Then we rounded the corner right before the old signs that said "Unstable Ground" and the ground was not there anymore to be unstable. 
That's Allen and Aryn and to the left of them it used to be all trees.
More to the left of them. The creek used to split somewhere right in here and part went to Navajo falls. Now it all bypasses Navajo.
Turning even more to the left and looking back up the creek we see the second set of new falls formed during the flood of 08.
Ben's making a sad face because he misses Navajo falls. I like how everything he is wearing is green, even his backpack and his hat! No question about his favorite color, huh?
As we walked down the trail a little more we could see the first set of new falls up the creek more.
We never found out for sure what they named these 2 new falls.
See the first set of falls in the center? They're actually huge. You'll see. Wait for it...
The new unstable ground, as the old ground is gone, like I said.
Looking down off the unstable ground. (No, I didn't get too close! Don't be silly!) 
Looking toward Navajo Falls
Old Navajo Falls behind the trees
Havasupai Creek was still pretty full of debris.
There were several dead trees in it.
Looking toward the new bridge - the old one washed away. This one is in the same place, only higher. On the left of the creek you see the rocks in wire cages to keep the river in its current bed.
A little better picture of the new bridge. To the right of it there are some of the empty wire cages.
Me, modeling the new bridge (It's 3:06 by now. Why not stop for more pictures!)
Looking down the creek towards Havasu Falls
Looking back up the creek (from the bridge, obviously)
FINALLY! We arrive at the top of Havasu Falls (3:12)
Looking off the edge you can see all the little people down there ..."and from up here they all look like little ants!"
To the left of the pool - lots more sediment than there used to be (the common theme)
Here's what they look like now... Havasu Falls from the trail down the side of the cliff.
And here's what Ben looks like in front of them! He's so cute!
The camp ground was way different. A lot of the trees closer to Havasu Falls died because 4 feet of dirt was left behind.
The creek from the falls through the campground was way shallow, only about 3 feet in the deepest places.
Lost of trees and junk left behind. They tried burning some of it, but I think it made it worse than just leaving it.
See?
People trying to swim in a shallow creek
More of the creek running through the campground
More of the campground
Lots of dirt
and more dead trees
That afternoon I didn't even swim. I just soaked my tired feet and stuffed my face.
More chatting
Mona's college crew from Utah
From the other side
Sandra and Carolyn getting ready for the day after feeding my family pancakes for breakfast...
...Loraine too! Thanks for feeding us!
After breakfast we decided to hike up to the mine to show those who had never seen it. We stopped at the falls for pictures, of course!
More...
Loraine, Carolyn and Sandra - see how much sediment is left? (We crossed the pool and are on the north side looking east)
The rest of the crew hangin out - this is looking down the creek from the north side
After the mine we walked up the canyon some more and we all enjoyed the noise of breaking boulders in the canyon. 
As Ben went to pick up the perfect boulder he found a rattle snake right by it! It is in the center of the picture behind the bush. It was only about 2 & 1/2 feet long 
Pretty canyon!
More pretty canyon backdrop (and Terrilyn)
Back to Havasu Falls to swim this time.
Down the creek a little, looking back
Since all the travertene pools washed away they made some out of sand bags. The limestone builds up pretty fast - it was about 2-3 inches thick already, but because people walk along the ridge ot the pools it wears off fast because it's still fragile. (this is some random guy)
More sand bags
The falls were much stronger because they didn't cascade over the same surface anymore, the kind of cut down the center, so more water comes down in one spot now instead of being spread out.
If you look real close you can see Ben and Farrin going behind the falls on the left.
They jumped out through the left side and swam back.
Farrin under water
I went back behind the falls with Ben. 
It was hard to breath.
W climbed into the little crevase that was ther before, but we couldn't jump into the same place.
Cheese!
Ben diving out into the side of the falls. (The center would have been suicide.)
Awe, hugs!
It was all shallow and full of debris. (Told you that was the theme!)
There was a crew working on building new composting toilets. I think they said there were 4 or 5 new ones going in. Yeah for composting toilets! They beat port-a-johns any day.
That evening we settled into a nice game of "Campers of Havasupai," which is like Settlers of Catan, but it has been tweeked to reflect all the joys of the Supai experience. It is also my favorite game!
This is at the top, where the flows to the falls. Going...
going...
Gone! See the little guy down in the water?
We walked up to old Navajo Falls.
It's a skelleton of a waterfall.
We used to try and climb up this tree as water was gushing down. It was a challenge to get to the top where you could go behind this part of the falls to a little cave.
The cave
Allen, asking the falls why they had to leave.
Ben and Me saying, "Boo!"
Allen, Sandra, Carolyn, Loraine and Farrin pretending to swim. On the way back Allen went for a real swim when he stepped in some fast moving water and was sucked down stream about 25 feet!
We ventured up to the new falls next.
A fork in the trail takes you right down to them. Allen wasn't happy to leave his cousin behind.
He sat on a rock the whole time we were at these falls and almost fell off once or twice.
There's a little Bobcat bulldozer up on top the trail above this retaining wall and as he drove on it the dirt fell down to the people below... Scary!
Ben and I went behind the falls and jumped through. It was awesome!
The trail takes you right up behind them and anyone can get to them. We ran into a friend and clogging buddy from Taylor, Leslie, while we were there. She's up on the trail and Ben is below.
Ben jumping through
Sandra jumps through
Carolyn jumps through
And then dives through too
Grant decided to be all cool and jump off the top.
Farrin finally got up the guts to do it too and then went back several times . He was hooked. Ben stood there acting like he was going to jump a couple times, but I knew better. He would never.
From the top
We walked up th the irst set of falls. Ben Farrin, and Grant are in front of the boulders in the front. (For refrence, silly! I don't expect you to recognize them!)
There was tons and tons of rubble and debris at these ones See Ben to the left of the center fall? He's standing on big broken pieces of limestone that broke off and washed down stream in the flood.
This is from the right side looking back accross the falls. Can you stil see Ben? (He's still on the boulder. Look for the horizontal stripe on his shorts.) These are huge falls!
Allen climbed a pile of rubble.
Well, after the exciting explorations of that morning we went back, to camp, had lunch and went to Mooney Falls with Sandra, Carolyn and Loraine. Looking down from the trail. The white wall thing at the bottom is stacked up sand bags. They are building a pool like the one at Havasu Falls, because, what was that theme? It's filled with sediment and debris!
This is infront of the place where there's a 5 foot fall where a rope swing used to be. The rope is gone and the pool below is filled with sediment, only about 3 feet deep :(
Standing behind the sandbags we put our hands on them and felt the rumble of the falls. It felt like the ground we were standing on was hollow! Weird, freaky feeling.
Why not pose for another picture? We have all the time in the world!
And another! Terrilyn, Amy and Shawn join us too!
This huge piece of the mountain started to fall so Allen and Amy held it up for a while.
And I held this one up with one hand while my tripped over her own two feet! Tee Hee
At this point (11:21) Amy figured we were walking too fast so she decided to pick up some charcoal from an old fire on the side of the trail and write messages to everybody for the trip out in 3 days.
We arrived in the village at about 2:00. Lucky for us it was overcast and not too hot.
Flex em!
Um... again!
So up to this point there were no changes on the trail. Then we rounded the corner right before the old signs that said "Unstable Ground" and the ground was not there anymore to be unstable. 
That's Allen and Aryn and to the left of them it used to be all trees.
More to the left of them. The creek used to split somewhere right in here and part went to Navajo falls. Now it all bypasses Navajo.
Turning even more to the left and looking back up the creek we see the second set of new falls formed during the flood of 08.
Ben's making a sad face because he misses Navajo falls. I like how everything he is wearing is green, even his backpack and his hat! No question about his favorite color, huh?
As we walked down the trail a little more we could see the first set of new falls up the creek more.
We never found out for sure what they named these 2 new falls.
See the first set of falls in the center? They're actually huge. You'll see. Wait for it...
The new unstable ground, as the old ground is gone, like I said.
Looking down off the unstable ground. (No, I didn't get too close! Don't be silly!) 
Looking toward Navajo Falls
Old Navajo Falls behind the trees
Havasupai Creek was still pretty full of debris.
There were several dead trees in it.
Looking toward the new bridge - the old one washed away. This one is in the same place, only higher. On the left of the creek you see the rocks in wire cages to keep the river in its current bed.
A little better picture of the new bridge. To the right of it there are some of the empty wire cages.
Me, modeling the new bridge (It's 3:06 by now. Why not stop for more pictures!)
Looking down the creek towards Havasu Falls
Looking back up the creek (from the bridge, obviously)
FINALLY! We arrive at the top of Havasu Falls (3:12)
Looking off the edge you can see all the little people down there ..."and from up here they all look like little ants!"
To the left of the pool - lots more sediment than there used to be (the common theme)
Here's what they look like now... Havasu Falls from the trail down the side of the cliff.
And here's what Ben looks like in front of them! He's so cute!
The camp ground was way different. A lot of the trees closer to Havasu Falls died because 4 feet of dirt was left behind.
The creek from the falls through the campground was way shallow, only about 3 feet in the deepest places.
Lost of trees and junk left behind. They tried burning some of it, but I think it made it worse than just leaving it.
See?
People trying to swim in a shallow creek
More of the creek running through the campground
More of the campground
Lots of dirt
and more dead trees
That afternoon I didn't even swim. I just soaked my tired feet and stuffed my face.Next morning everyone was chipper. Amy, Adrianna, Grant and David chat before breakfast. 6-9-09
More chatting
Mona's college crew from Utah
From the other side
Sandra and Carolyn getting ready for the day after feeding my family pancakes for breakfast...
...Loraine too! Thanks for feeding us!
After breakfast we decided to hike up to the mine to show those who had never seen it. We stopped at the falls for pictures, of course!
More...
Loraine, Carolyn and Sandra - see how much sediment is left? (We crossed the pool and are on the north side looking east)
The rest of the crew hangin out - this is looking down the creek from the north side
After the mine we walked up the canyon some more and we all enjoyed the noise of breaking boulders in the canyon. 
As Ben went to pick up the perfect boulder he found a rattle snake right by it! It is in the center of the picture behind the bush. It was only about 2 & 1/2 feet long 
Pretty canyon!
More pretty canyon backdrop (and Terrilyn)
Back to Havasu Falls to swim this time.
Down the creek a little, looking back
Since all the travertene pools washed away they made some out of sand bags. The limestone builds up pretty fast - it was about 2-3 inches thick already, but because people walk along the ridge ot the pools it wears off fast because it's still fragile. (this is some random guy)
More sand bags
The falls were much stronger because they didn't cascade over the same surface anymore, the kind of cut down the center, so more water comes down in one spot now instead of being spread out.
If you look real close you can see Ben and Farrin going behind the falls on the left.
They jumped out through the left side and swam back.
Farrin under water
I went back behind the falls with Ben. 
It was hard to breath.
W climbed into the little crevase that was ther before, but we couldn't jump into the same place.
Cheese!
Ben diving out into the side of the falls. (The center would have been suicide.)
Awe, hugs!
We decided to walk back down the creek to the campground.
Well, kids, this is it! Woopie!
It was all shallow and full of debris. (Told you that was the theme!)
There was a crew working on building new composting toilets. I think they said there were 4 or 5 new ones going in. Yeah for composting toilets! They beat port-a-johns any day.
That evening we settled into a nice game of "Campers of Havasupai," which is like Settlers of Catan, but it has been tweeked to reflect all the joys of the Supai experience. It is also my favorite game!Next morning, 6-10-09, we hiked up to the new falls. On the way we stopped at the top of Havasu Falls again. (I make Ben be in all these pictures for reference. He's such a good sport!)
Oh, take another picture!
And another!
This is at the top, where the flows to the falls. Going...
going......going...
Gone! See the little guy down in the water?
We walked up to old Navajo Falls.
It's a skelleton of a waterfall.
We used to try and climb up this tree as water was gushing down. It was a challenge to get to the top where you could go behind this part of the falls to a little cave.
The cave
Allen, asking the falls why they had to leave.
Ben and Me saying, "Boo!"
Allen, Sandra, Carolyn, Loraine and Farrin pretending to swim. On the way back Allen went for a real swim when he stepped in some fast moving water and was sucked down stream about 25 feet!
We ventured up to the new falls next.
A fork in the trail takes you right down to them. Allen wasn't happy to leave his cousin behind.
He sat on a rock the whole time we were at these falls and almost fell off once or twice.
There's a little Bobcat bulldozer up on top the trail above this retaining wall and as he drove on it the dirt fell down to the people below... Scary!
Ben and I went behind the falls and jumped through. It was awesome!
The trail takes you right up behind them and anyone can get to them. We ran into a friend and clogging buddy from Taylor, Leslie, while we were there. She's up on the trail and Ben is below.
Ben jumping through
Sandra jumps through
Carolyn jumps through
And then dives through too
Grant decided to be all cool and jump off the top.
Farrin finally got up the guts to do it too and then went back several times . He was hooked. Ben stood there acting like he was going to jump a couple times, but I knew better. He would never.
From the top
We walked up th the irst set of falls. Ben Farrin, and Grant are in front of the boulders in the front. (For refrence, silly! I don't expect you to recognize them!)
There was tons and tons of rubble and debris at these ones See Ben to the left of the center fall? He's standing on big broken pieces of limestone that broke off and washed down stream in the flood.
This is from the right side looking back accross the falls. Can you stil see Ben? (He's still on the boulder. Look for the horizontal stripe on his shorts.) These are huge falls!
Allen climbed a pile of rubble.
Well, after the exciting explorations of that morning we went back, to camp, had lunch and went to Mooney Falls with Sandra, Carolyn and Loraine. Looking down from the trail. The white wall thing at the bottom is stacked up sand bags. They are building a pool like the one at Havasu Falls, because, what was that theme? It's filled with sediment and debris!This is infront of the place where there's a 5 foot fall where a rope swing used to be. The rope is gone and the pool below is filled with sediment, only about 3 feet deep :(
Standing behind the sandbags we put our hands on them and felt the rumble of the falls. It felt like the ground we were standing on was hollow! Weird, freaky feeling. Here we are with the sandbags... 
...and without.
Unfortunatly at this point the batery for my digital camera went dead and the 2 disposable cameras I brought were used up. It's probably just as well because if I had another 113 pictures it would have taken me a month to get this posted!
So, the last exposure before the battery died for good was the one that captured this beautiful moment where out tradition is being honored. Popsicles on the way out of the villige is my idea of bribery for what we're about to get ourselves into. That last 8 miles out of the canyon is hard and definatly worth a treat or 2. By the way, Ben isn't in these last 2 pictures, because he rode the helicopter out like a pansy! No, not like a real pansie, he had surgery on his foot last year and it is barley healing. It's funny though because we beat him and Darin to the top! They had to wait for a bunch of tribal members to fly out before them.
Well, all in all it was an enjoyable trip, but talked about it and we think we'll wain for about 5 or 6 years when the the little ones are old enough to go before we return. that way the new falls will have accumulated more limestone build-up and the folliage may be starting to make a real comeback. Thanks to everyone who came this year! We enjoyed your company! And thank you to all those who stayed home and watched little ones and fed cats and dogs so that we could go! Thank you and bless you! (Candice, Mom, Sister Porter... I'm not naming any names)
...and without.
Unfortunatly at this point the batery for my digital camera went dead and the 2 disposable cameras I brought were used up. It's probably just as well because if I had another 113 pictures it would have taken me a month to get this posted!So, where, do you ask, did these pictures come from? Well, by the next morning, 6-11-09, as we were leaving the villiage we wanted a picture infront of the guardians (the 2 stone pillars) so I checked my battery on a whim and low and behold there was a tiny bit of power left! Just enought to power it on, snap one exposure and turn it off again.
This is, from the back left: Allen, Amy, Adrianna, Daniel
Front: Loraine, Me, Terrilyn, Carolyn, and Sandra.
(I think it's funny how we're all crouched down like we're not going to fit in the frame!)
So, the last exposure before the battery died for good was the one that captured this beautiful moment where out tradition is being honored. Popsicles on the way out of the villige is my idea of bribery for what we're about to get ourselves into. That last 8 miles out of the canyon is hard and definatly worth a treat or 2. By the way, Ben isn't in these last 2 pictures, because he rode the helicopter out like a pansy! No, not like a real pansie, he had surgery on his foot last year and it is barley healing. It's funny though because we beat him and Darin to the top! They had to wait for a bunch of tribal members to fly out before them.
Well, all in all it was an enjoyable trip, but talked about it and we think we'll wain for about 5 or 6 years when the the little ones are old enough to go before we return. that way the new falls will have accumulated more limestone build-up and the folliage may be starting to make a real comeback. Thanks to everyone who came this year! We enjoyed your company! And thank you to all those who stayed home and watched little ones and fed cats and dogs so that we could go! Thank you and bless you! (Candice, Mom, Sister Porter... I'm not naming any names)TTFN!
5 comments:
That is a lot of pictures. It probably took you forever to post them. Don't you have children to take care of?
It was sad to see Navajo falls gone, but the new falls look fun and we look forward to going again when the little ones are older.
Girl, you are so crazy! I can barely keep my life in a happy order, I can't believe you have time to do all you do. Crazy.
Awesome posting. Loved the reunion update. Awesome to see the old bed swing again! I can't remember what I sang on it. Kudos to your Grandpa for starting the vision. You can blame him for my crazy yard! I think I have the most popular house in the neighborhood, thanks to him!
And the crick in my neck from looking through all those Supai pics! You must have some serious neck knots and a horrible case of aggravated carpal tunnel. You ever heard of the term "overboard"?
They're great pictures though.
And as always, your kids are totally cute! Speaking of cute kids, I actually have two really good cute pictures of Aeden. I can't believe I took them! How soon can I get you to post them? :)
Girl, you are so crazy! I can barely keep my life in a happy order, I can't believe you have time to do all you do. Crazy.
Awesome posting. Loved the reunion update. Awesome to see the old bed swing again! I can't remember what I sang on it. Kudos to your Grandpa for starting the vision. You can blame him for my crazy yard! I think I have the most popular house in the neighborhood, thanks to him!
And the crick in my neck from looking through all those Supai pics! You must have some serious neck knots and a horrible case of aggravated carpal tunnel. You ever heard of the term "overboard"?
They're great pictures though.
And as always, your kids are totally cute! Speaking of cute kids, I actually have two really good cute pictures of Aeden. I can't believe I took them! How soon can I get you to post them? :)
Happy Day! I have been wanting to see them...love the pics! Hopefully, next year we'll make it down with you!
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