Waterfall grand canyon1/28/2024 ![]() From there the hike winds for several miles through a dry, rocky and dusty canyon bed. The first leg of the hike was the steepest, dropping 1,000 feet into the canyon in roughly a mile. Before we left, we ate a big breakfast to make sure we would have enough fuel for the long haul. We started our hike at sunrise to beat the midday heat and still have time to enjoy the afternoon at Havasu Falls. We then went to sleep in anticipation of our big hike the next day. To make sure we wouldn’t be boxed in, we unhooked our truck from our trailer and placed large rocks in between so nothing could park there. The lot itself was too small to fit our rig, but we found one spot on the side of the road that was just large enough for us. When looking at the satellite image for Hualapai Hilltop, we saw multiple RVs parked along the roadside, so we decided to take a chance on it.Īfter a long day of driving, we arrived to Hualapai Hilltop after dark and saw that the parking lot was 75% full. This lets us visualize how big the space is, if there is enough room to turn around and if other RVs are shown parked there. One of the tools we use to see if a parking lot has enough room for our RV is the satellite view on Google Maps. There is a parking lot at the Hualapai Hilltop trailhead, but we weren’t sure if it was large enough for an RV. In addition to planning everything we needed to pack, we also needed to figure out where to park our truck and trailer. In hindsight, I should have stuck with the original three nights, but oh well – at least we finally got the permits we had been after!! It wasn’t until after I hung up that I realized the new pricing structure was tiered so the longer you stay the cheaper it was per night. Not knowing what to do since we had been trying to get permits for so long, I reduced the reservation to two nights in an attempt to save a little bit of money. I mean after all we are talking tent camping here! The lady must have heard the shock in my voice as she explained that they recently hired new management who raised prices given the increasing demand. “Alright that will be $400 for three nights” she said. I quickly picked dates for the second week in April since my sister Kalie was visiting with us the week prior. When I asked if there were any cancellations for April she said “When do you want to come and how many nights would you like?” I could not believe what I was hearing! Overlooking Havasu Falls Day 3 – finally someone answered, but said they were full. Roughly two weeks prior to us being in Arizona I stepped up my game. I called every day, multiple times per day, calling all numbers associated with the Havasupai Reservation office. Several weeks went by with no success – half the time I couldn’t get a hold of anyone and the other half was told there was no availability. We left on our 14 month road trip on February 6 thand every week I’d call to see if there were any cancellations. I thought…right, how often does that happen? Sensing my disappointment, the guy said you can always try calling back in a few weeks to see if we receive any cancellations. I said, “Wait, you have an online reservation system!? When did that change?” He stated that over the last year they implemented a new online reservation system so you can now book online or call.Īt this point, as much as I felt bad for not calling on February 1 st, in a weird way I felt better because neither Max nor I had knowledge of the online reservation system so we likely would not have gotten a permit anyhow. He said with the new online permit system the entire year sold out in roughly two hours on February 1 st. “Every single day for the whole year?” I asked. Upon answering the guy informed me they had already sold out all permits for 2018. So the next day, February 2 nd, I called and called and called and called until finally someone answered. But yeah, when Max got home from work he wasn’t too happy to hear I forgot to call and I felt terrible. I have no good excuse other than it was a whirlwind of a week having just said goodbye to my job, moved out of our townhome (we rented it out) and was still packing up our truck and trailer with everything we needed for 14 months on the road. I am usually really good at executing plans like this (dialing with multiple phones, calling back again and again) but for some reason on this day…I totally forgot! Yep, just completely spaced out on this one. Max had marked our calendars for February 1 stwith the phone number(s) to call and asked me to call since he had all day meetings at work. After two years of calling to obtain a permit, we thought we were ready for opening day of the 2018 reservations. Havasu Falls had been on our bucket list for several years, but due to the limited number of permits and difficulty getting them, we had been unsuccessful obtaining them up to this point.
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