Through Fran's Eyes

Plus Grand Canyon National Park and Sedona

In 2021 I went on a roadtrip from Arizona to Colorado and back. In Arizona I visited with my friend Janna and when I was researching the top things to do one that popped up was Havasu Falls. The pictures looked amazing so I added it to the list. It wasn't until I was in AZ that my friend laughed at me and let me know that you can't just show up, you have to get reservations and its a long hike.

3 years later, in February of 2024 I get a text from my friend Einny, asking if I'd be down to hike Havasupai. Up to this point I have only done one backpacking trip, Kalalau on Kauai. I remember the name from the previous road trip and the cool pictures I saw of blue water and orange rocks and so I immediately say yes. A few hours later I get a Venmo request for $500. We got five slots for the end of October.

The year prior, I was inspired to sign up for the Honolulu Marathon which was in December, and the plan was to lose weight at the first part of the year and then get my mileage up in the second half (I promise this is going somewhere). I'm down 20 lbs by July and I started increasing my mileage in August. A month before the trip, I went for a run and I twisted my ankle and kept running for 7 more miles. I start having problems. A week before the trip I go to urgent care and they do an x-ray and they find a stress fracture. Doc said the treatment is a to put a boot on for 2 months.

I tell him "Doc, I have a backpacking trip in Arizona I want to do first. Can I put the boot on after I get back". He sighs with a mix of amusement and disappointment and replies "Well, we can't force you to do anything, you're a free man."

Roll 118 Colorplus 200

The final group ended up being me, Einny, Lys, Anthony and Gaby. Most of us arrived Wednesday morning at PHX while Lys arrived the day before to hang out with her grandma who we got to meet for 5 minutes. Of course we had to stop at Trader Joes for supplies and In-N-Out for the best value burgers in the world.

The first stop for most people doing Havasupai is the Grand Canyon Caverns Inn in Peach Springs, around an hour from the Havasupai Trailhead. This is where you check in before the hike and get your wristbands. Its a motel-like establishment kind of in the middle of nowhere. We didn't know that you could stay here before the hike so we ended up getting an AirBnB in Kingman, AZ which is a little but further.

Caverns Inn attractions:

Me practicing being in jail because of who I voted for and who ended up winning... just kidding this was a week before election day.

Left to right: Einny, Lys, Anthony, and Gaby.

Day of hike

After checking in, we headed out to Kingman. The airbnb that Einny found was very nice, very homey! We planned to leave at 5 am to get to the trailhead by 7 and get started early on the 10 mile hike. Before we left, Lys who is a medical professional (so is Anthony and Gaby), taped up my left leg with KT tape and different bandages.

Cows at sunrise.

Anthony has the best handstands in the group.

Havasupai - the name of the local tribe, meaning "the people of the green/blue waters"

Havasu - means "green/blue waters"

Supai - name of the town.

This the group at the trailhead. In July 2024 I went did Kalalau (my second time) with Anthony, Einny, and Lys and 10 other people. So you can kinda say it's not our first rodeo. Before you get to the trailhead, you pass through a checkpoint with a Havasupai Ranger. He checks our passes. Across from him is a sign that forbids pictures of the local people and animals. Leg feels okay. My pack weighed in at 45 lbs.

Speaking of rodeos, horses is one way of getting to the town and to the camping grounds. Right before we were starting on the trail, I saw this train being led by a local cowboy. Remembering the sign from before I asked him if I can take a picture of his horses and he says "Yeah you can a pic of them, thanks for asking."

Mile 0 out of 10. It's 8 miles to the start of the town of Supai and 2 more miles to the start of the camp grounds. Leg is still feeling okay. The tape helped and I also brought hiking poles.

Roll 119 Ektar 100

Now, on top of being injured I was also taking a lot of pictures so there was a lot of catching up.

Definitely chose the right film stock for this part of the trip. Loved the reds and oranges of Ektar.

In the the Canyon:

Miles 2-7. Took a break every couple of miles. My leg started hurting, I took my first dose of ibuprofen. The beauty of the hike helped too. Saw a lot of hikers on their way out. There was some porous rocks that people were inserting smaller rocks into so we joined in.

Quick break.

Mile 7.5 right before town proper.

Right before the town of Supai, there were a lot more signs forbidding photography of the townspeople and pets so no pictures here of those. At the start of the town there was a house that had a few tables and chairs outside and a sign for frybread. I had frybread for the first time in Navajo nation in 2021 and have been obsessed since. The lady at the house was named Rebecca and she had hamburger frybread, taco frybread, and vegetable soup with frybread. It was amazing after hiking 8 miles but I'm sure I would have loved it even if I wasn't hungry. My legs feel shot pain levels at 5-6/10 and I take more ibuprofen. We continue to hike through the town. We pass the town center where they have a gift shop, the cafe, the lodge, a grocery store and the helipad right by their early education center. The locals travel around in horses, mules, and UTVs.

Mile 8 of 10. Right after the town you get back into the canyons.

Havasu Creek from the trail.

Right before you get to Havasu Falls, there's another set up for frybread, this time with a popup tent for the kitchen and a tarp tent with tables and chairs for dining in. Since we just ate, we passed this one.

THE Havasu Falls is the first thing that greets you after you pass the frybread tent. It's so breathtaking but after hiking for 10 miles we're ready to set up camp and rest our legs. We walk past the falls and get into the camping grounds.

The campgrounds is a stretch of land in the canyon in between Havasu Falls and Mooney falls with sites along the creek on both sides. There are no reservations for sites, first come first served. They have a natural spring where people get drinking water and three bathrooms spread through out the area. We end up taking some time looking for a good site and end up towards the end of the camping grounds... right before:

Mooney Falls which a local guy named Blackwolf says is better than Havasu Falls. I agree with him.

Day 2

We set up camp around 200 feet from Mooney. We can hear the water (the creek or the waterfall, I couldn't tell) constantly and it reminded me of being by the ocean. There's probably something primal about being by a water source. The other 4 set up tents while I set up my hammock with rainfly in the back.

Gaby and Anthony in the morning.

We decided to use this day for hiking to Beaver Falls which Blackwolf says is even better than Mooney. The hike is 5 miles round trip and the path just follows the canyon, with a bunch of fun stream crossings. My legs don't seem to be in pain anymore, but maybe it just turned numb...

Anthony found a nice stick, which he proceeded to bring to the rest of the hike. Gaby is supportive.

The reason for the blue tint of the water is high concentrations of calcium and magnesium.

The whole hike is littered with views like this which made us take longer but what can you do when nature looks this amazing?

Two humans (homo sapiens) found in the wild.

Two desert bighorn sheep (ovis canadensis nelsoni) found in the wild.

This was taken across the stream, I wish I could take a closer pic but the longest lens I had was my 50mm 1.8.

Roll 120 Fujicolor 100

Around halfway through the hike I had realized that I only brought my Fujicolor 100 as spare film which I was regretting as the sun was going down (my other option was the Superia Premium 400 which I left at camp). But you make do with hat you have.

Got to this waterfall and took this handheld, then I realized...

I had my mini tripod and since I had a lower ISO film stock, I can take longer exposures! Retook the last photo, put around 1s in for the shutter speed, turned on the timer, and just prayed to the analog gods that it would turn out well. This is my first long exposure water photo and I love the results!

Though there were pink path ribbons for most of the hike, it was nice to see confirmation!

One out of a dozen stream crossings. Sometimes there would be no pink ribbons so you just gotta trust.

After taking a million detours and photo stops (mostly due to me), we finally get to our main destination, Beaver Falls. Beaver Falls is made up of a bunch of falls and pools which you can swim in. By the time we got here, the sun was already past the canyon and so it was freezing. We swam for a bit and climbed and scaled some of the rocks (a little bit of actual rock climbing) to get to some of the upper pools. By the way, the Havasupai falls' (all the falls in the Havasupai area) limestone formations are called travertines!

On the way out we found a bunch of bighorns and this one was close to the path! Got my camera set up with focus and exposure as it had its head down grazing on the grass. I made a quick sound so it would look at me and then BOOM. Later we find out from a local that the Havasupai people consider the bighorn sheep to be their siblings and so they don't eat them or any other caprines.

The plank bridge.

Mooney hiding through a veil of trees.

Einny and Mooney, as we wait for the line to climb up.

Mooney Falls. My absolute favorite image of the trip. The mist, the blue water, the reflection.

After getting back to the campsite, I wanted to get my frybread for the day. So I hurried to the other end of the camping area. Alas, they had just run out a few minutes before I got there. Though I did see some friends we had met a day before. I also did get to see Havasupai Falls again.

Day 3

The Sandals Gang. Not pictured, me wearing my Nike sandals. For the third day, we planned to hit the other falls in between the town and the campsite.

On the way we saw these guys. I met Justin and his girlfriend on the first day as we all hiked in around the same time. They're from Colorado and he is also a photographer!

Fiftyfoot Falls was our first stop. It took us a little bit to find it as some of the path was changed or destroyed by the recent flooding.

I met Tori and her Fiance on the way to Fiftyfoot Falls.

Another fav. Gaby and Anthony performing an acroyoga stunt.

Lys welcoming us to grandeur.

Einny exploring for hidden treasures.

Little Navajo Falls. This is where we ended up swimming for the day because for some reason the water was warmer than everywhere else! it almost felt like there was geothermal activity going on.

Did Einny find giant onion leeks or did we shrink her down?

At the end of the day we went back around 4 to get frybread at the tent at the beginning of the campgrounds. We got the last few pieces... and since they were closing, we didn't want to eat it there and so we walked it to our campsite, passing people on their way to get frybread...

Some campers had told us that that night would be freezing in the low 20s or under. And also that it would be raining in the morning. Let's just say that we did what we needed to do and we survived.

Day 4

The next day, final day at Havasupai. We woke up and packed up in the rain. The road was muddy and our stuff was wet. But the sun came out around 10am!

This is the gang waiting for our turn to ride the helicopter to get out of here. Love how this one turned out, with all of them leaning one way, the girls with their hands together. Nailed the focus and exposure too!

While waiting for the helicopter, we met another group from Colorado.

Mountain above the town. Made sure there were no locals or animals. Loved the clouds.

Roll 121 Ektachrome 100

Had to take the same pic as the last frame of the last roll just to compare it on slide film.

Clouds rolled away.

A little bit to the left of the previous pictures, you can see the last ride before our turn. I'm glad everyone else wanted to ride the helicopter too because I would have been sad if I was the reason we HAD to ride out. Anyways, if you didn't know, the helicopter is the 3rd way of getting in and out of Havasupai. Though you have to stand in line and locals get priority.

A view from the helicopter, one of the valleys we presumably hiked through on the way in.

Back at the hilltop!

Some very nicely rendered clouds driving out of Havasupai Nation. We rushed to get to Grand Canyon National Park aiming to catch the sunset.

Catch the sunset we did.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing this view.

We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge, the cheapest hotel inside Grand Canyon National Park but really really nice since it you're close to the canyon if you're trying to cat the sunrise like we are in this picture.

It was freezing but getting to take pictures like this makes it worth it!

Portraits of the 6am risers (Lys was there too but did not get a film picture).

After dropping Lys off at the bus stop so she can head back to Phoenix early to hang out with her lovely grandma, we tried to visit Montezuma's Castle but it was closed. On the way there we saw a frybread/trinkets place and OF COURSE I had to get frybread. I asked auntie if I can snap her pic and she just gave me a smile and said yes and went back to her phone.