Havasupai

Leslie, our friend Charles, and I finally made it down to the Havasupai Indian Reservation this weekend. This has been on my list of places to see ever since we moved down here. The trip consists of first making camping reservations 2 months in advance, then a five hour drive from Phoenix, and last a 10 mile hike down into in bottom of the Grand Canyon via Havasu Canyon. Havasupai mean People of the Blue Green Water which is no surprise when you see where they live.

After hiking down ~8miles you reach the village of Supai which is home to ~500 Havasupai Native Americans which you can only reach by trail or helicopter. This village helps to define the word "Remote"

Another 2 miles below the village and you come across the first of a series of some of the most amazing waterfalls I have ever seen.

The hike down to one called Mooney Falls tops the list of one of the most scary hike/climbs we've ever been on. The climb down the vertical limestone cliff includes a series of man made tunnels, several chains and anchors and a couple ladders.

CLIFF DIVER

The water is crystal clear and full of dissolved lime which creates these perfect travertine falls and bright blue pools.

This place has had some very catastrophic flash floods including a huge one last summer that stranded a couple hundred campers. These floods are constantly shaping and re-shaping the river and falls.

Although the camping area was a bit of a picturesque parking lot, it was well worth the hike down and paying to have our packs hauled back up by horse made the trip up much more bearable.

Although it does look like fun, we chose just to watch people like this jump off.

Scaring Some Fish

Doug, Jake and I got in a long overdue Deschutes river rafting trip with the specific goal of scaring as many trout as we could. Fortunately/Unfortunately we scared 2 to death and they tasted great. The fish were very cooperative and we were able to let most of them go.

We saw more wildlife on the river than I had ever seen before, particularly the Snakes, River Otters, and Osprey which had a nest on almost every river mile.

Warming Up

Over the last month Leslie and have been pretty much been splitting our weekends between Portland and the White Mountains of Arizona. We both made it back for Portland for Mothers day weekend, and then Leslie's Dad's 60th Surprise Birthday, and Leslie made one more quick Trip Back for the Corvallis to Portland Race.

We've also explored a large area of the White Mountains in Arizona which is an excellent high alpine area (less hot) area of Arizona.

There are definitely some of the most picture perfect mountain streams in the White Mountains. like the Little Colorado below.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

We did make it back up to Mt Hood to the secret Morel spot with Rod, Caleb, Aunt Pam, Aunt Cea, Leslie and I.

One of our Favorite spots in Portland.