Visiting Grand Canyon’s Havasupai Falls

One of my favorite Grand Canyon experiences is actually not even part of the Grand Canyon National Park. Full of lush waterfalls that look like they belong in the rainforest, the Havasu Falls are a true oasis in the desert. In some ways the Havasupai Falls Trail experience is easier than the traditional Grand Canyon hikes…though not a cheaper one. In this post, I’ll talk about the hike down to the Supai Village, staying in the Supai Village, and the waterfalls you’ll see in that region.

Hiking Havasupai Falls Trail

The Havasupai Falls Trail is 8-10 miles long, depending on whether your destination is at the Havasupai Lodge in Supai Village, or the campground two miles further down the trail towards the Falls.

This hike is part of the Havasupai Reservation. There are several checkpoints along the hike where you’ll have to prove you have a permit for your hike. Permits come along with your reservation of either the Havasupai Lodge or the campground.

I may be alone in thinking this, but of the 4 trails I’ve hiked in the Grand Canyon, (North Kaibab, South Kaibab, Bright Angel, and Havasupai Falls) I thought Havasupai Falls Trail was the easiest (by a small margin). It’s a sandier terrain, and about 2,000 ft less elevation change than the popular Bright Angel trail.

In the last miles, you start to see signs of the village approaching, which somehow doesn’t interrupt that sacred Grand Canyon feeling of being totally remote.

Staying in Supai Village

Booking a night (or 3…)

Spending the night in the Supai Village is not cheap. A year after re-opening to tourists post-Covid in 2023, a few things changed from the systems that were in place back when I visited in 2018. For one, rather than having simply a limited-time phone reservation system, you can now use an online system to reserve either a room at the Havasupai Lodge in the Supai Village, or the campground closer to the Falls.

Here are the things you’ll need to know about this process:

• Booking online, and even checking the booking calendar, requires creating an account which is easy enough but…
• You’ll have to create a separate account for the lodge and campground even to see the calendar for either. The pages look near identical so this confused me for a moment and I wasn’t sure why my login credentials weren’t working. (Again, it’s because they’re separate accounts – the lodge account and the campground account.)
• When you create your account, you’ll have to assign a “POTENTIAL ALTERNATE TRIP LEADER (PATL)” (who MUST be present for the reservation.)
• The prices have nearly doubled since I went in 2018. For example a 4-person (2 bed) room at the motel-style Havuspai Lodge was ~$440 per night and is now $759 per night*. The campground is ~$151 per night*.
• *Reservations are actually made in 3-night blocks, so you must reserve 3 nights at a time. This is true for both the campground and the lodge. That means the real costs are $455 per 3-night campground permit/reservation per person and $2,277 per 3-night lodge room for up to 4 people.
• Even though reservations are for 3-night blocks, it’s really better understood as a 4 day block because the calendar only really allows you to select dates where 4 days are unbooked. So you may see 3 nights in a row available, but it won’t allow it if the 4th checkout day is not also available.

Additional Lodge Details

• Maybe because of the steep price increase, the good news is that the Havasupai Lodge is not nearly as competitive as the more common Phantom Ranch and at least at the time of writing this, it’s much easier to get same-year reservations. For instance at the time of doing this research (mid-April) I was able to find availability as soon as July 2nd of this same year. That’s not at all the experience you’d have trying to find Phantom Ranch availability.
• The Havasupai Lodge is much more like a normal motel than Phantom Ranch. From inside your room, you’ll have no idea you’re not in a Days Inn or Red Roof Inn for example – not at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
• For both the lodge and campground, You can check in anytime between 8am and 5pm, and while there’s not an official checkout time stated, you must start hiking out no later 2 pm on your day of departure. Time your hiking in to arrive at the lodge before 5pm.

Additional Campground Details:

• If you don’t want to hike all your camping gear down with you, there are mule services for ~$400 roundtrip. Learn more about those here.

The Village

One of the appeals of this trail is getting to see the remote, Supai Village. This is not a tourist town, (despite having quite a few tourists and a handful of features for tourists.) It’s a real village where the Havasupai tribe lives an incredible life tucked away from the chaos, commotion, and convenience of the rest of Arizona.

Food:

Unlike Phantom Ranch, where the only place to get a meal is the pre-ordered meals at the Phantom Ranch Canteen, the Supai Village has a little cafe and store where you can order from a menu, or get some pre-packages snacks. The cafe has simple but classic items like burgers and fries, or the local fry bread as well. (Eating vegetarian will be difficult.)

Helicopter:

There is a helicopter landing pad just outside the cafe area and you can watch locals come and go with this helicopter. At the time of our visit, it looked like there were occasional tourist groups also making use of the helicopter. To learn about pricing or to make reservations, you’ll have to contact AirWest. Find out more about that here.

Before you go, familiarize yourself with other Havasupai Reservation rules.

The Falls

You may think that 3 nights at the bottom of the Canyon is too many, but I assure you, it’s not. The Havasu Falls are the most famous of the Falls in this region, but there are actually quite a few Falls you can explore – most within leisurely hike-ability of the Lodge or campground.

If you start your morning in the Supai Village (either because you’re breakfasting at the cafe or because you stayed at the lodge) here are the waterfalls in the order you’ll encounter them.

Little Navajo 

A little over a mile down the trail from Supai Village, you’ll find the the Little Navajo Falls. Not quite as photogenic as the other falls, it’s still a great opportunity for dipping your toes, and is quieter than the other more popular falls.

The Fifty Foot Falls

Right in this same area if you follow the river upstream a short ways, you’ll find the stunning “Fifty Foot Falls” (also called the Upper Navajo). This is a must-see spectacle – a playground where you’ll feel surrounded by Falls, all with that iconic “dripping” limestone that looks like its mimicking the falls themselves.

Havasu Falls

Just past the campground (around 2 miles from the Supai Village) you’ll see the famous, Havsu Falls with that bizarrely turquoise water and the dripping limestome. There’s lots of space for swimming here.

Mooney Falls

One mile further (3 miles from the Supai Village) is the tallest, Mooney Falls. This is where things get dicey and you are reminded that you’re not in a federally maintained National Park. Arguably just as beautiful as the more famous Havasu Falls, this one requires you to climb down a stretch of cliff on a series of ladders. There are chains along the way to help you hang on, if that makes you feel any more comfortable. This is for sure-footed folks only, but if that’s you, you’ll enjoy more great swimming and a rope swing here.

Beaver Falls

If you did not burn all your energy hiking 8-10 miles to Supai Village yesterday and you are not worried about conserving energy for another 8-10 mile hike back out tomorrow, there is another cascade 3 miles further called “Beaver Falls”, (6 miles from the Supai Village).

We did not visit this one because it would have meant a 12 mile day, and because by the time we reached there and hiked back toward the lodge, we weren’t sure how the cliffside ladder climb at Mooney Falls would go at dusk, coupled with the fact that others there said the path is a little harder to navigate – again, a bad combination with approaching dusk.

Travelers say that, while the falls themselves are not unlike the other cascades you see in this area, the hike there along the creek is the real treat. You can read more about hiking to Beaver Falls here. If you want to add this into your day, just be sure to start out early enough in the morning to tackle the Mooney Falls section safely on your trip back.

Conclusion

This trip was such an incredible highlight for me, right up there with African safaris and overwater bungalows. And while the 3-night / 4-day requirement for either of the lodging options may seem restrictive, there is so much to explore, being able to stay inside the Canyon for more than one single night and swim around this waterfall playground to my heart’s content was one of the huge appeals for me.

Having said that, I was startled by how expensive it now is to stay at the bottom, particularly in the lodge, but at the campground as well. I suppose like some African safaris and sea-planes to overwater bungalows… adventures that fit into this more remote, immersive, and explorative category do sometimes come with expenses that can’t be as easily mitigated with miles and points.

I’m interested to hear how all of you approach these sort of special travel cases in terms of using your miles and points to help mitigate costs. Comment below! (And Greg, Nick, Tim, and Stephen if you’re reading this…I want to see a podcast about adventure-travel from a miles and points perspective!)

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