And then there are the surprises, places that stay with you forever, that you miss with a physical ache. Oh, Havasupai. It's been too long.
Twelve miles through this, with a pack so heavy it bruises your hips.
Fall asleep aching, the sound of rushing water foreign and strange. Blistered and exhausted, get up and walk to this, startling green in a land of dirt and rock, water dyed crystal blue and green from limestone.
The world is full of incredible places. This may very well be my favorite one. Walking the path to Havasu Falls in the middle of the night, standing, listening to the steady roar, chilled by the mist, the white spray of water visible even in the darkness. Closing your eyes and just being.It stays with you.
All images taken from www.havasupaitribe.com and havasufalls.net. More images can be viewed at either site. It may break your heart though.
22 comments:
All of these pictures are beautiful but that second one especially is just breathtaking. Yet another location added to my "places to travel" list.
Wow -- gorgeous. To rip a line from A Knight's Tale: "A riot of color in a dreary gray world." Though in this case it's more "dreary sandy world," I guess.
I miss it too!!
I wrote an article on Havasu. I'd love to visit someday, sigh.
Wow, those pictures are amazing! I love love love the second one -- I don't think I've ever seen anything that blue before. :)
The pictures are nice, but your writing moved me. Lovely.
Absolutely beautiful.
Meh, it's got nothing on Sacred Falls in Hawaii. You know, the falls you get to after that twenty minute hike into the lush, tropical mountains, right near where I used to live?
:) Actually, I'd love to visit Havasu one day. It does look beautiful.
This is one of my parent's favorite places. They've done the hike like a dozen times throughout their marriage (they owned a backpacking store and ran high adventure trips when I was growing up). Many of my siblings have gone as well, but for some reason I was always busy and couldn't go. I'm jealous that you've been there. It's one of my goals to go, but I'm thinking about taking it easy and letting a mule carry my pack. Does that make me a wimp? I'm sure my fifty + year-old parents, who still carry their own pack, will think so.
I'm feeling kind of achy and sad today, and these beautiful pictures are almost too much. Wow. I miss the desert.
Love the pictures, and the writing. Yes, you are definitely a writer. You didn't need the pictures to take us there.
Definitely, definitely try to go if you ever can. It's amazing. It stays with you forever.
Renee, I don't know, I think the fact that this is in the middle of the Grand Canyon, surrounded by barren desert makes it even MORE amazing ; )
And thanks as well for the compliments on my writing; you are all too sweet.
Wow. Gorgeous! I've never really been a desert person but my sister, the rattlesnake biologist, is, and she knows the Grand Canyon well. I've only been once and just for the day. Some day would love to see much more.
:-)
I miss ARIZONA sooo much! Sigh... LOVE THESE pictures! Awesome! Gorgeous! Jenni
Ah, the desert! I love the desert. I live in a desert. Although I don't make it down to the sandy orange and blue parts as often as I'd like. :)
Beautiful shots. Glad you had fun!
Being that I live not too far away, I've been there a couple of times. What an amazingly exhausting hike that yields a reward that makes it all worthwhile!!!
gorgeous. I love nature. Thanks for sharing.
If I ever escape from an alien spaceship (having been abducted), and I'm plunging towards the earth at 10,000mph, this is the view I want below me — preferably with a life guard on an inflatable duck dead in the centre of the water.
I love the Painted Desert. I've driven through it a number of times throughout my life, and it's always gorgeous. I haven't seen the Havasupai falls, though.
if I had pots of money I'd live in the Southwest, despite loving it up here in New England. There's something about the desert, even the desolation of the Salt Flats, that is addictive.
Fun with ambiguity part 675. I now realise my previous comment reads like I want the life guard to be dead, which doesn't make sense.
So, that's my own little treat for me logging on to add that these pictures remind me in some small way of Guadalest — a similarly rockoid dropoid waterfallesque vista in the Med. Spain, I think. I went there once. And yes — definitely that dust and dryness thing. I love it. Sand and succulents. Obscure lizards. All of that.
Ouch! Wow! Ouch! Wow! Wow! Ouch!
Great pics!!!
Swoon! Want to go so badly!
xox
Post a Comment