We live in a really beautiful State

And I know there's more yet to see, but the hike we took last week into the Grand Canyon to the little Tribal village of Supai surpassed everything I was expecting!!

We and eight of our friends drove up to the town of Peach Springs, north of Flagstaff last week.  We began early the next morning and were starting down from the trail head shortly after 8:00 and something like 50ºF - or in other words, perfect conditions.

It was clear in the first 100' that we would need to share.  The trail.  With all manner of 4-legged things.  Mules, dogs, horses.  And somehow you just know not to argue with that.

After 45 minutes of downward momentum, (the whole time dreading the return part of this trip the next day) we hit the flats that lead into the canyon valley.  Nice shade, amazing geological formations (rocks for the plain speaking folks) and more stepping aside for the mule trains.  Oh!  And abandoned typewriters.  

Sadly, I missed the shot of the Pony Express.  This is the last place in the USA where the mail comes and goes by pony.  No rider.  Nothing.  Just one pony who knows the route very well.  And travels it back and forth everyday.  With the mail on it's back.

Almost to the village, is this rock with all these naturally formed pocks.  Apparently the idea is deposit your rock somewhere here on the way into the village and remove it when you leave.  A fairly crude but possibly amazingly accurate way to track the visitor population??

With a few stops along the way to catch our breath and chow down on energy restoratives (nuts, beef jerky, chocolate for the plain speaking folks) we made it to the village in just under 4 hours!  Dropped our gear, changed into water shoes and headed out again.  This time hiking another 1.5 miles to the first of 3 waterfalls, and further on to more waterfalls down the trail.  Not a clue that such beauty existed in this state!

Next time I'll bring a bathing suit.

You can still see the rock formations on either side of the falls that shows how much bigger the falls used to be eons and millennia ago.  And how many more eons and millennia did it take for those falls to polish smooth the rocks it tumbled over??

Once a monkey, always a monkey.

Some other links to check out are here, here and here.

Thanks for stopping by today!