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Arizona vacation – Part 3: The Falls

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3M). 93 pictures included.

See also:
Part I: hiking the National Monuments (Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon.
Part II: hiking into Walnut Canyon and to Supai on the Havasupai Indian Reservation (the Grand Canyon, more or less.)

Mooney Falls

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Four shots of Mooney Falls with different lighting and a slightly different location.

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Looking to the bottom of Mooney Falls, including a (blurry) shot of Nicole, and just the base of the waterfall.

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There was a sign that said something to the effect of "don't get too close to the edge," which also meant that there was something cool to see close to the edge. Two shots of the entire group. The waterfall is visible between us. From left to right: Frank, Nicole, Becky, Stan, Joel, Jess, and Scott.

The Descent Down into Mooney Falls

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It begins. First there's a warning sign leading into the rocky gloom. Then the rocky gloom becomes steps of rocky doom (the picture is looking up the steps). Then there is a chain of hope to keep you from slipping and plunging down with a loud boom.

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It's not really big enough for people to be going up and down and the same time. Jess and I tucked into the rocks to allow some people to come up. You can see Scott had passed them going down. After that, there are more things, such as wooden ladders, chains, ropes, and things of which I will not speak. The final part is the ladder to the bottom. It's only like 10 or 12 feet (3 or 4 meters to the metricly inclined). Two shots of the ladder are included. Then you reach the bottom.

At the bottom

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A shot of me and Nicole at the bottom of the falls, and a shot of the bottom of the falls.

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The branches at the bottom are covered in a red dirt. They look fake, like some clay immitation or something. Two close-up shots of the red dirt covered branches.

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And then the waterfalls. Mooney Falls really is amazingly pretty. A shot of the top, then the whole falls, and then the falls from a ways back. The colors are amazing, the blue-green water, the yellow and green of the trees, and red-brown of the rocks. The sky was overcast that day, so we didn't get blue sky to top it off. It was still amazing.

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Near Mooney Falls were some old mines. They would mine for lead and silver, and later vanadium, though they didn't yield a lot (too hard to get things out of the canyon. There's a ladder that goes up to the mine. It looks insane (and the bottom part of it is removed so people don't try to climb it). The runs look far apart, and it's a climb a couple hundred feet up. The two pictures show the mine and the ladder.

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Three pictures of the Havasupai Creek beyond the falls. The first one is one of my favorite pictures, framed with the grape leaves hanging down in the foreground.

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More of the creek, with a tree in the middle. The last shot shows footprints in the creek, which is a clue for us that creek crossing was in the near future for us.

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Some pretty and tall ferns. The first two shots are of Scott, Jess, and Nicole, who were ahead of me. The third shot is of Becky, Stan, and Joel, who were behind me (but catching up.

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Once again, a tarantula was on our path. This guy was near some rock steps. He really didn't seem to want to be involved with us so hid near some rock steps. The second shot shows a tree growing sideways out of rock.

Crossing the Stream

Although not all the stream crossings were the same for everyone.

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Here we see Stan and Joel trying to take the easy way out of crossing a stream by walking across a shallow area upstream, and walking on some logs. Unfortunately, the logs shifted, and Stan went in. Becky took the third shot, and didn't actually see him go in, as he hadn't gone in when she pressed the shutter button.

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Stan got one leg soaked. Fortunately no damage to him or his possessions (like his camera). Joel made it across OK. The thrid shot was looking downstream, where the water was deeper, but a lot more stable and easy to cross. Pants were shuttled across to keep them dry.

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The rocks had cool patterns in them. They look like some sort of geological version of E.T.

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I couldn't help myself, the rocks had that lion's mouth sort of look to them. A blurry shot of Nicole, and a shot of the amazingly blue water in the creek.

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Three views of the Havasupai Creek from on high.

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Climbing up a path, there were some prickly pear cacti at the top of a hill. I re-enacted my version of what not to do. A semi-normal shot of me. And one of me reacting to a tree that had a cool, curving sort of branch. Originally, I had Nicole pose there, but after a few "lean more this way, look more that way, reached more thusly" she suggested I demonstrate the pose I wanted and she took the picture. Another branch (not shown) was in an unside-down "V" configuration which was equally cool.

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A panoramic veiew of the canyon wall, looking left, center, and then right. The thumbnails line up sort of OK.

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Another shot of some cactus on a cliff with the water in the background. And two shots of a tree on the edge of the hill. That was about as far as we went. We decided it was time to turn around, since we wanted to get back while it was still light. We were probably 30 minutes from Beaver Falls. As some consolation, we talked to some people who had been there and said it wasn't all that great, compared to the views we had already seen.

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We then went back to Mooney Falls, recrossing the creak 3 times, going through the fern valley, and all that (and not stopping for photos). Back at the bottom of the falls, we waited a few minutes for some people who were climbing down. I got a shot of Becky and her dad, Stan, while we were waiting. And a shot of Nicole (towards the top of the Falls).

The Top of Mooney Falls

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A shot looking out from the top of the falls. A shot looking over the falls (the falls start at the bottom right of the picture) and one looking down.

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Not only is the tufa visible, but in the bigger version, you can see people climbing up the trail of chains, ladders, spikes and such. And two of Becky, looking out over the falls, the second with her hand in a searching sort of pose.

Havasu Falls

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At the beginning of the campgrounds are some signs. The first marks some high ground, which is useful if there's a flash flood (the campgrounds were flooded in 2004). The second is a "no rock climbing" sign, juxtaposed with some impressive rocks to climb.

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Three shots of Havasu Falls. Beautiful falls that capture the fell of the place.

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The first shot is from alongside the falls. The second shot is of Nicole when we were behind the falls. There was a mini-cave back there. The third shot is from behind the falls looking back to where the first shot was taken. I didn't realize that Jess and Scott were there, or that he was doing a goofy "muscle man" pose for her as she took a picture. Amusing and good timing. The last shot is of the falls from the top looking at the whole area with the striking colors.

Navajo Falls

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There's a footbridge (in the middle, on the left) that you cross to see the falls. The second is of shadows of Nicole and me in the stream, which is just to the right (center) of the first picture. And the third is of Navajo Falls.

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Three shots of the stream next to Navajo Falls.

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More stream action by Navajo Falls.

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Then three shots of Navajo Falls. Very pretty, although the canyon walls almost look like they were just added into the picture with Photoshop (these are untouched).

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One of Nicole taking a picture of Navajo Falls and one of the top of Navajo Falls.

There and back

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Two shots of the helicopter at Supai. In the first, it's on the ground and people are getting into it. In the second, it has just taken off. It heads to the right, climbing, and then turns and goes to the left (south?) out of the canyon.

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And finally, a shot of a mule train working their way down the hill, and then a close-up of a couple of the mules, a few minutes later. As this was Sunday, I think they were just using the boxes to carry supplies, rather than delivering the US mail.

See also:
Part I: hiking the National Monuments (Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Walnut Cany.
Part II: hiking into Walnut Canyon and to Supai on the Havasupai Indian Reservation (the Grand Canyon, more or less.)

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