Hey ! Welcome to my website dedicated to my backpacking trip to Supai and Cataract (Havasu Creek) Canyon. This trip planned out months in advance with arrangements to meet some fellow backpackers. Our reservations with the Havasupai Tribe though, couldn't be made until January 2000. We had a super trip and enjoyed the area very much. We prearranged to meet up with friends from California and from New Mexico.

I have scanned some of our better photos and hope you will enjoy them. They don't do justice to seeing it in person.

What is Supai? Supai is the village for the Havasupai Indian Tribe located on their reservation in northwestern Arizona. It was part of Grand Canyon National Park at one time, as the government had taken the property from them, but they fought in court to get their tribal property back and won the decision in the early 70's. The Supai Tourist office makes all the arrangements for your trip such as your camping reservations, reservation entry fee, etc. They also have a pack service where you can have the pack mules/horses carry your pack down and out for you plus there is helicopter service available too. A lodge with dining room is also available to stay in if you don't want to camp and they have a snack bar, post office, and a grocery store in the village near the tourist office.

Some learning experiences from our trip: 1) We should have started hiking into the canyon earlier as we left the parking lot at 8:45AM but 5:30-6AM would have been better as we hit the heat much too early. It hit 90 on us and it was very hot and dry.
2) We started hiking out at 5:10 AM and hit the heat again as we arrived back in the dry canyon in a few hours. We were out by about 11:30AM. Some groups made it out much sooner but we carried our full packs in and out ourselves and didn't use the pack horse service. The 90's is a little warm for this time of year there but this is not a normal year and 80's is the normal high.
3) I might go in mid-April next time to beat some heat although the warm days made it nice for swimming in the creek, the pools, and around the waterfalls.

Our hiking group consisted of us four from Missouri, myself, my co-worker Dave, my daughter Caitlin and her friend Amanda; plus 3 friends from California: Linda, her son David and friend Franco; plus friends from Sante Fe and Colorado Springs - Kathy and Dianne.

The hike down begins at Hualapai Hilltop parking area which is 60 miles from Old Route 66 and takes off as Hwy 18 just west of the Grand Canyon Caverns. It is a pretty drive but there is some open range and you have to watch out for the cattle on the road. The Hilltop parking area is at approximately 5100 feet in elevation and the trail switchbacks for approximately 1-1/2 miles down to Hualapai Canyon which is at approximately 4100 feet in elevation where you leave the switchbacks and start down the canyon. The elevation drops to near 3300 feet where it meets Havasu Creek in Cataract Canyon. From Hilltop to the junction of Hualapai and Cataract Canyons is approximately 6-miles then it is another 2-miles into the village to the tourist check-in station then another 2-miles on to the campground past Havasu Falls. After checking in at the Supai tourist office we stopped at the canteena for a soft drink and then hiked on to the campground 2-miles away. Along the way to the campground we saw Fiftyfoot Falls and Navajo Falls prior to arriving to Havasu Falls.

Hualapai Canyon starts out wide and eventually narrows into a water and wind sculptured canyon with high walls before opening to Cataract Canyon and Havasu Creek. If you are interested in the quad sheets for this area then you need to order the following three sheets to cover the entire hike from Hilltop to the bottom of the Grand Canyon: Supai, Havasu Falls, S B Point - Arizona.

We were up by 3:45AM on Monday morning and all of us were out of the campground by 5:15AM. Some had hoped to depart much early but the alarm didn't wake everyone up so we all ended up hiking out together anyway.