Havasu Falls Hike November 2023

‪@Dean_Trips‬ hikes with wife Isabele to Havasu Falls in Arizona, USA and then camp three nights before hiking back up to the Hilltop parking lot. Havasu Falls lies on the Havasupai Indian Reservation and permits to hike and camp are difficult to come by as they usually sell out each year quickly on February 1st. Dean and Isabele originally planned the trip in 2020, but the pandemic and delay to open the hike and campground pushed the trip to 2023. The couple plans for possible cold nights and pleasant day time temperatures, carrying with them warm sleeping bags and clothes to stay warm at night. The weather is fortunately dry and daytime highs reached the 70s F (low 20s C), while the lows were most likely in the upper 40s F if not low 50s F (8-11 C). Dean and Isabele hiked the 10 plus miles to the campground in a little over 5 hours, being slowed by sore toes. To get to the trailhead drive and hour or so north from highway 66 east of Peach Springs, Arizona. The hike starts at the Hilltop parking area, then descends quickly before gradually going down to the Supai village and further on then to the camping area between Havasu Falls and Mooney Falls. Dean and Isabele spend the next two days hiking to Beaver Falls and enjoying time at Havasu Falls. On day four the pair get up around 4:15am to leave camp by 6am for the return hike. The two elected to carry all of their supplies and equipment on their backs foregoing the mule transportation option and the helicopter ride out. Wearing her water shoes instead of hiking boots (which caused the pain in the toes), Isabele and Dean make steady progress and arrive back at the Hilltop parking lot just at 11:00am for a five hour return hike. Dean uses the Strava app on his phone to record the hike back after finding his Garmin Forerunner 645 watch not accurate in recording the distance on the inbound hike. The Beaver Falls hike on day two took an hour and a half on the way back hiking fairly briskly covering 3.8 miles or 6.2km to our campsite (about a half mile from Mooney Falls). The Beaver Falls hike is very worth it. We did not leave early enough in the day and did not believe we had the energy to commit to hiking all the way to the confluence (where the Havasu Creek runs into the Colorado River). The sign indicated the confluence would be and extra 12 miles (nearly 20km) roundtrip from Beaver Falls, which would have made for a 19 mile (30km) total hike from our campsite. Our campsite is located on the left of the trail that leads through the camping area up against the rock wall and across a small stream. There are many beautiful campsites next to the Havasu Creek and across it as well. As we arrived around 2:30pm on day one, we did not have much of a choice for a site with a picnic table, which I find pretty essential for cooking and hanging out as well as to place our supplies when unpacking and packing up. We did not bring our own chairs. We carried two sleeping bags, a tent, a tent tarp, two inflatable sleeping pads, a MSR pocket rocket burner with an 8oz canister, a MSR cook set, freeze dried food, protein bars, foldable water containers, clothing, and a rented rat sack to store food. Information on getting a reservation which is also possible on the cancellation list can be found at: www.havasupair...

[@fentog]

Very nice !

[@Dean_Trips]

Thank you!

[@RezNemati]

Beautiful, Good job capturing the beauty!

[@Dean_Trips]

Thank you 😊

[@donnaconstant4218]

Great job you guys, can’t wait to go next year!

[@mjmjmj28]

Can you share about the weather, the range between night and day as well as the water temperature of all the falls? Thank you!

[@Dean_Trips]

The water temperature doesn't vary too much as it stays around 70 degrees year round (as it is spring fed) and is good to go in even in November. We were very fortunate with the weather as November can be quite variable. We were prepared for night time temps in the 30s, but it didn't get below the 40s for us and was comfortable to sleep. The daytime highs reached the 70s although in November the days are shorter and the sun doesn't reach the area of the falls and campground for very long each day.