Grand Canyon - Arizona Trail

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#1

I just completed an article in June '07 Backpacker Magazine about an incident that occurred just a week before I and my brother, nephew and some friends enjoyed walk across the Canyon last year. I do not recall hearing about the murder of a hiker at Havasupai last May, but apparently it was making the news when we were on the trail. The description of the Supai village is a far cry from what I found there in the 60s. The scenery, yes, everything else, no. The trailhead on the rim was at a dirt parking lot that was kept in good condition. It contained a picnic table and was clean of litter with a couple of trash barrels and an outhouse. The trail down was used by mules and hikers and was well maintained. It was a place of friendly but suspicious people, not much at all, a few houses. a store, a church. There was a small hotel but nothing like the lodge they have there now. There was a community building that was the tribal headquarters. All in a cluster. The trail cut down the middle of the small village and toward the falls. The campground was in good condition and my partner and I were the only ones there for a couple of nights.

From the BC report, I am not sure that I would go down there alone until they gain some control in the situation. It is a shame that we have treated the Supai the way we have.and we must be cautious about visiting the beautiful place in which they live.

Has anyone been down there in the past few weeks that could be more encouraging?

J. D. Cool

#2

The story in Backpacker Magazine did a very good job of discribing the state of the Supai village right now…as a matter of fact it might have been a little soft.

First things first, I’m not here to blast the Supai people, I had a great time while I was there. I was treated with respect by the village people and in return showed them much respect. I understand that they have problems, problems that I don’t have a “grand fix” for just as they don’t have a fix for them.

From the top… Myself and two others went on this trip. Myself and the other male are pretty big boys. The girl was petite. The parking lot was “O.K.” There are some bunted out/beat up cars up top. I was only a little worried about my truck. However there is a lot of activity up top so I’m not sure how much danger their really was.

The trail is well kept/well used. There was some garbage along the flats (lots of plastic pop bottles and such.) How much of this is visitor trash? I don’t know, chances are good that most of it was. I guess if it bothered me that much, I should have picked some of it up along the why back to the top. The trail sees a lot of mule traffic and not a lot of rain, therefor it smells like mule piss when it gets hot.

The village was sad to a point. The spray paint, the broken windows and of course the trash was everywhere. What is the answer? It is a long and expensive ride to the top to get rid of trash. I don’t like seeing this stuff in my own hometown let alone in paridise. The people where about split on friendly and unfriendly. I believe that as a whole they are a very proud group of people and have been mistreated along the way, to include the resent past. There are times when hikers are very self absorbed and I’m sure as a service based village (wheter they want to be or not) it gets old. The one thing that stuck out was the gang writing. At times it felt like I was in some big city. The graffitee was the same. I thought to myself, “where did they learn this.” One thing that every house had was a dish from dish network. We did see three young men sitting on a rock with their gang attire. They didn’t say anything “to” us but stared us down and I could hear mummers.

The camp ground was alright, used to the exterme but what is the other choice? They were doing the best the could. The toilets were air lifted in and out. I was there durring spring break and they were full at the end of the weekend. On Monday they replaced them and all was nice again. There was some trash at the campsites, it was all hiker trash and we only have ourselves to blame for it. But in for the most part it was kept clean.

The way up was somewhat strange as I did the final big up by myself. I caught up with an Supai on a horse. At first he was friendly, I even picked up the stick he was using to beat the hell out of his horse when he dropped it and gave it back to him. He was however very drunk and appeared to at times want to fight with me. About 1/2 up the last push he ran in to another Supai on a horse coming down were they stopped to drink some more so I never saw him again.

BUT the falls were unbelievable. And for the most part I enjoyed the Supai people.

Just my 2 cents
SweetAss

SweetAss