Havasupai

So I suddenly have become extremely busy and haven't had time to post, but Adam and I had the privilege of going to Havasupai a few weeks ago. We were asked by the Young Women leaders if we would go to Girl's Camp, mostly because they had a bunch of the Priesthood leaders back out at the last minute, so they needed Adam. It was an amazing and unique experience in many different ways. We had a blast and learned a lot.

To give the abbreviated story of our highly eventful trip, we started early on a Monday morning. We met at the church and drove the 9 hours to the top of the canyon. (For those of you who don't know, Havasupai is a Native American village down in the Grand Canyon) Every girl and every leader had a backpacking pack which contained our clothes, food, cooking supplies, tents, sleeping bags and pads, etc..EVERYTHING we would need for the week was contained in these packs that we hiked with. We started the hike around 5:00 PM on Monday and ended up hiking until about midnight, when we all agreed that we couldn't go any further. We slept on the trail on top of our sleeping pads. I say "slept" very lightly, because nobody really ever fell asleep. Mostly it was just nice to lay down for a few hours. We rose the next morning around 5:00 AM and started hiking again, with many little companions on our way (there are hundreds of wild horses and dogs of all shapes, sizes, and colors that simply roam the trails and campsites politely begging for food). The total hike is 10 miles, and by this morning we had 3 left. We passed through the village, paid our money to go in, and finished the trek to our campsite by the stream. For the rest of the day, we set up camp and spent a couple hours at Havasu Falls, about half a mile away. It's a huge waterfall with swimming areas, rocks, etc. It was really pretty, rather freezing, but a great reprieve from the 110+ degree weather we'd hiked in.

Wednesday we decided we'd start in the morning for Mooney Falls, which is another falls a mile or 2 away, with a rather treacherous climb down the cliffs, aided by chains and chiseled makeshift stairs. On our walk, we encountered a man, frantically asking if there were any EMTs with us. We said no, but Brother Thompson and Adam dropped their things and ran in the direction the man had come from. The man quickly explained that someone had been sucked under the water by Mooney Falls and had not come back up. We kept on toward the falls, and came upon a group of scouts screaming and yelling in obvious terror that was heartwrenching to hear. After several minutes, our men realized there was nothing they could safely do, except keep these scouts out of danger by pulling them away from the edge. Long story short, the 31 year-old scout leader had been playing in the water with his scouts, immediately after finishing the hike in to Havasupai. He was sucked into a seemingly harmless whirlpool and did not come back up. Some of the scouts had grabbed his hand when he was able to thrust it out of the water, but could not pull him out. 20 minutes or so after being under, he was sucked into a tube below the water, and fell hundreds of feet over the waterfall, dead and mangled. Brother Livingston pulled him out of the water down below, and there was nothing else to be done. This man's brother was one of the other scout leaders with the group, and I will never forget his face as he ran past us after realizing his brother had been thrown over the fall. The man had a 2-year-old daughter waiting for him at home.

You may wonder how we could have possibly had a good time for the rest of the week, but we did manage. We all gained a stronger testimony of the eternal nature of our lives, of the blessings of the Priesthood, and greater gratitude for our safety. On Thursday, we ended up going to Mooney Falls, since we obviously didn't get to the day before. We made the treacherous hike down, said a prayer for the stranger whose death we felt almost as if we'd known him, and carried on with our trip. We spent that afternoon at another fall, and believe it or not, witnessed another accident, though not nearly as traumatic. Some of our girls had made friends with a scout troop in the campsite next to ours. One of these boys decided he wanted to impress the girls, so he did a helicopter jump off the waterfall (which was about 30 feet high) and landed diagonally in the water. We thought nothing of it except that he probably would be hurting when he came up. Well, he didn't come up. Again, Adam and Brother Thompson ran to the rescue, pulled the boy out of the water, and worked for agonizing seconds to get him conscious again. He had a concussion and would have gone into shock if Adam hadn't noticed the signs early, but all-in-all he ended up just fine.

Whew! What a week we had at Girl's Camp. We never could have bargained for what we got, but it was such a testimony strengthener for Adam and I. We are so blessed to have our health, our safety, and the Priesthood in our lives. After all the times I saw my husband and the other Priesthood holders in our group run to the aide of strangers and friends alike, doing all they could do to restore life and health, I am so incredibly blessed to have that power in my life.

We had an amazing group of girls. There were times on the hike, to be totally honest, when I wasn't sure I could take one more step! But the girls were awesome, encouraging, hilarious, and NEVER uttered a complaint! Port-o-potties, tents, dirt, cooking their own meals on a camping stove, heat, etc. etc. etc. and they were WONDERFUL! All my respect to all the great girls of the San Pasqual ward! Plus, what made it even better, was that one of my lifelong best friends, Janelle, and her husband Mike were also able to come. It was so fun to do it all together!


The "Before Shot"



The cliff hike down into/Up out of Mooney Falls

Our awesome girls!

Mike, Janelle, Me, Adam at Mooney

These warning signs were all down the hike into Mooney Falls "Exercise Extreme Caution", "Descend at Own Risk"



The "After Shot"