If you love the outdoor and nature, and you haven’t been to Havasupai, then you need to add this destination to your bucket list. Havasupai is an Indian reservation in the outskirt of Grand Canyon National Park. Within this reservation lay breathtaking paradise of canyons, waterfalls, and torquoise pools of water. This is one of the most beautiful places that I have hiked, and one of the most memorial trip of my life. But I must warn you, this is an intermediate or advance level of hiking. You will hike around 12-16 miles a day for 2-3 days. The uphill hike back to your car will be a tough hike. This hike will turn boys into men, and princess into Xena. 🙂 If you don’t think you can tough out the uphill hike, then there’s horse riding and helicopter ride available. Helicopter ride is available to first-come, first served. Horse riding back to Hilltop requires a 24 hours reservation.

To get here, first you need to make reservation, which needs to be done about a year in advance for the lodge or camping areas. They do have check-points to check your permit or wristbands. We went with the lodges because they have restrooms, beds, and wifi access. Whether camping or lodging, you will have an experience of a lifetime. We went here on the second week of May, and the weather was not that hot as I imagined. We are from Los Angeles, and it took us about 8 hours drive to Hualapai Hilltop, which is the parking lot of where everyone must park their cars. Most people park and sleep in their cars, and wake up early in the morning to hike 8 miles downhill to the Village Supai. To avoid hiking in the afternoon heat, we started to hike at 7am and arrive to the village around noon. Reserve your mule to take some of the heavy gears & supplies down. It’s about $85 for a mule, and its can carry around 135lbs or 4 bags. Keep your hiking bag light, because it’s going to be a long hike of 5-6 hours to the village. Below are some of the preparations needed for this trip.

Pack list:

• At 2 liters of water for each person

• Foods & fruits – we brought ramen & Mountain House food packages from REI. Cliff bars were my favorites.

• Mosquitoes repellent – if you know mosquitoes are attracted to your blood like I am

• Sunscreen

• Trekking poles – you will be glad that you have these going uphill or even downhill

• Hiking water shoes

• Dust masks – there are a lot of horses and mules going up and down the hills, and they kick up a lot of dusts and  leave behind large dungs.

For Photographers:

• Tripod

• Shutter trigger

• ND filters

• Rain cover – it rains during the time that we were there.

• 1 or 2 lenses only. I use mostly 24-70mm

• Drones are not permitted in the reservation. So leave them at home, unless you want to take the risk and be sneaky when using.

As you walk through the canyons, you will encounter a lot of horses or mules. It’s a beautiful view. But protect your nose, because you will be smelling a lot of dungs and dusts.

The Lodge. This is where we stayed. It’s in the Village. From here to the camping grounds, it’s another 1.5 hours.

This is the trail to the first waterfalls – little Navajo. It’s about 45 minutes hike from the Village.

The Little Navajo Falls. Perfect place to swim and cliff-jumping. The safe spot is next to the big log that’s sticking out. But you can also jump at the middle of  the waterfall. Can you see me? 🙂

Top view of Havasu Falls. 

Ahhh! As soon as you descending down from the top, you will be greeted with this amazing, breathtaking view of Havasu Falls.

*** WARNING: Strong undertows at this Fall. Do not go near or under the undertow unless you are a strong swimmers like me and Vu Dang (Red shirt). Our friend almost drowned here.

We are having too much fun here with our jumping shots. 🙂 I think I accidently hit Dave’s crotch from the jump. I love you man, but not in that way. Accident happened. LOL.

I make people disappeared with long exposure here. 🙂

The scary climb at Mooney Falls.

The Mooney Falls. About 1 hour hike from Havasu Falls. 

Hiking through the Canyons was an awesome experience. Go with a great group of friends and time will fly. Your 4 hours hike seems like a 1 hour walk…

Mr. Vu is always leading the pack. Off he goes again…trail blazing. 

After 3-4 hours hike from Mooney Falls, we arrive at this beautiful spot. The water is about 5 ft high and is perfect for swimming, and cliff is about 20ft. We jumped here and had a blast, but we couldn’t stay here long because it was 4pm when we got here. So we had to start hiking back around 4:30pm before it would get dark.