Part II Arizona – Road Trip to Paradise

The only luxurious thing that I allow myself to get addicted to is the luxury of traveling. It feeds my mind and my soul and that’s the reason why I always wanted to see all the things this world could offer. To be honest, this amazing world never disappoint every single time.

Finally, the second leg of our Arizona trip is here. If you happen to missed reading the first blog you can find it here.

The main reason why I chose to visit Arizona was this pristine falls found in the middle of Grand Canyon called Havasupai Falls. I will go over our 10-mile hike and adventures reaching the blue green waterfalls in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Day 3

The reason why we head straight to Hilltop on day 2 even though we knew that we will get there very late was to get a hiking permit. I knew that we needed to make reservations months before the trip due to high volume of hikers but we couldn’t get through their phone. We called almost everyday but luck was not on our side. So I told my crew that we can try our luck when we get there.

We arrived in Hualapai Hilltop around 4pm or so. When we get there nobody was in their office. I almost lost my sanity when I found nothing but cars parked there. Hey, driving for 5 hours is no joke! I almost lost my hope but my Japanese friend saw some hikers and asked some information. We asked them if they had hiking permits and to my surprise they said, they had none. They arrived early in the morning and just hiked through towards the village. They just paid for the entrance fee. It was music to my ears knowing that. So my friends and I agreed that we’ll return early the next day to have the biggest hike of our lives.

We planned to leave our motel like 5:30am to be at the Hilltop at around 7:30am and therefore reach Havasupai around 12 to 12:30pm. But guess what, we were so tired the night before and woke up a little later than what we agreed upon. We left our inn at 9am with energy filled up. We reached Hualapai Hilltop at 11:30am. We arrived later than the usual because we got lost missing our turn. Luckily we found a motel close by wherein we were able to connect to their wifi and got our directions back to our GPS.

When we get there, I was in awe of the beauty on top of the Grand Canyon. That alone was a good cue that this hike is something extraordinary. We started at the Hilltop. Going down was not that hard but it was very steep and rocky. The rest of the hike was all flat and very rocky. The only thing that will make your hike grueling is the fact that you’ll be in the canyons for 5 hours and you have carry all your stuff. So one important tip is to PACK LIGHT!

Weather is a big issue too if you plan to travel during summer time. But we were so lucky that we went there in February. I actually thought that it’ll be cold but to my surprise the weather was really nice. Not too hot neither too cold at all. Another tip is to keep yourself HYDRATED!

The moment I  saw this sign I couldn’t help but to get even more excited. Though I was drained because we were hiking for almost 4 and a half hours already, I was ready to have a face to face encounter with the waterfalls. But half of me was nervous as well because we didn’t have any reservations for the lodge. I kept telling myself that I was ready to knock to some random Native Americans’ house and ask them if they can let us sleep just for a night.

Finally, after a solid, grueling five hours of hiking we reached their village. It was a small community complete with school, cafe, grocery, and church. It was far from what I expected.

We paid $50 for the entrance fee then they gave us yellow tags for identities, I suppose. We head straight to the lodge to make a reservation for a night. We told them that we weren’t able to make a reservation because no one was answering the phone. Luckily, they got room for us. Thank God! After resting for 15 minutes, we already head out to hike for another 2 miles to see the falls. It was 3:30pm already so we wanted to maximize our time.

After 2 miles of hiking, there, standing in front of us the glorious Havasupai Falls. Oh by the way, you’ll see the Little Navajo Falls as well while walking through the Havasupai Falls. It was a love at first sight! All the feeling of being tired and hungry were out of the picture after seeing this beaut!

After relieving our precious time in the Havasupai Falls, we went to the Mooney Falls 0.5 miles away from the Havasu Falls.

We weren’t able to stay there longer because it was beginning to get dark plus we were hungry as a horse. My crew decided to get back to the lodge and eat in the cafe. At 7pm we decided to go out from our lodge and grab something to eat. But we didn’t know that the cafe closes at 5pm. One more tip: Buy food first or make sure you have something to eat. The good part we still have left over pizza. The bad part, we were three and we only have one slice. Another good thing was we have Cheetos!

Day 4

The first thing that we did was to go to the cafe and had a big breakfast. After that, we went back to the two closest falls. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to the Beaver Falls because it was the farthest and we need to be back in Vegas later that day. We were booked to a tour for the remaining four days that we have.

We started our hike back to the Hilltop at 12pm. I thought that we made it faster because I already see the top and it was still early. I was thinking that we could reach the top in 30 minutes. But I was wrong because it took us more than an hour to reach the top. Hiking back to the Hilltop was the most tiring out of all the hikes that I did. I almost lost my breath. Another problem was we ran out of water. Moreover, our legs were still sore because we just did our hike the day before.We literally have to stop after 5 steps. I. ALMOST. DIED. Seriously. But my crew and I had no choice. We have to make it and so when we were able to reach the top, it was the most fulfilling feeling ever!

Another important tip: If you can, stay at least three days. There, you can savor the falls and you can visit them all. Also you have at least a day to rest from long hikes.

True enough it was once in a lifetime experience. If ever I wanted to revisit I’ll probably take the helicopter back to the Hilltop for $80, I believe. It was another experience too, you know! I can save my legs from being amputated. But all in all I didn’t regret the hike back actually. I feel like I can hike whatever mountains or trails thrown at me. It was fulfilling and challenging. I am glad that my crew and I gambled even if we didn’t have the permits. It was one hell of an experience that I’ll forever treasure.