havasupai indian reservation

Our trip to Havasupai was in August 2012. We parked at the Hualapai Hill Top and walk the 6 miles to the village in about 2.5 hrs (average age was 30 years old). The village is nice but is in the middle of the Grand Canyon, so don't expect to find luxury accommodation. From the village to the camp grounds is about 2 miles. After this point is where the real fun begins. The scenery is just amazing and word don't do justice to what you see.

Let me just say that I am not rating the Havasupai Falls in this review. The waterfalls and the hike down through the canyon are strikingly beautiful and stunning, no doubt about that. The Supai village on the other hand is not. It is a village that belongs to the Supai tribe. There is trash all over the entire village, you can see piles of trash in people's yards and all over the walkways. Even on the way down through the Grand Canyon, we saw a lot of trash on the side of the trail. It is a shame to see this much trash inside such a beautiful place, the Grand Canyon. There was even a big trash pile behind the lodge we stayed at, right outside our window. The lodge was very simple but it had black hairs on all our sheets and pillows as well as in the shower. The service at the check in was cold and unfriendly. The horses in the village looked mostly underfed, they looked like they were starving and most of them stood in their own manure. One horse in particular was tied to a tree and unable to move more than two feet away from the tree. It was ankle deep in manure. I would recommend that you stay at the campgrounds, which are further away from the village. You get to enjoy the true beauty of the waterfalls and the canyon if you stay away from the village as much as possible.

Best 8+ mile hike from top to bottom I have ever experienced. Amazingly beautiful. The people and their culture are incredible, and they were very polite to us. We did go up to Havasupai Falls... if you made it the 8 miles down, you cannot skip that part! The bottom of the Grand Canyon and a clear nights stars, breath taking!

The waters at the Indian Reservation are definitely a world class destination on a par with Grand Canyon, which it adjoins. The waters of the river and falls are an unearthly blue and clear, similar to the unnatural color of Disney World's waters but in this case, the color is due to natural lime deposits. The two waterfalls, Havasu and Mooney are both well over 100 foot falls and gushing even though this is the desert. Beaver Falls are a series of falls that span the width of the river, creating a quite different but beautiful scene. Because of the mineral content of the rocks, travertine pools are formed in the river and stalagtites form near the larger waterfalls making the surrounding rocks look cave like. Lush ferns abound near the falls and even a very old palm tree near Beaver Falls. The cottonwoods in Supai have to be 100 year old trees. This is an overnight trip to see the falls. The trail is 10 miles one way to the first waterfall and requires a $35 per person fee just to enter, $17 per person camping, $5 per person environmental fee, and 10% tax. But having traveled to around 25 countries, I can say it is well worth the fees. I would suggest staying at least one additional night, a total of three nights to see it all. The 10 mile hike in is hot, through a canyon and there is no water until you get to the town of Supai at mile 8. You can also purchase food, but buyer beware. There is no road into Supai and all supplies arrive via mule or helicopter. 1 pound of Quaker Oats was $14. Prices are NOT marked. Also prices can be misleading, so be sure you ask for the full price; if you decide to stay at the lodge in Supai, I was told that there is a $70 environmental fee on top of the room fee. We camped at the campground, had a spectacular site right on the river. There are the cleanest compostable toilets I have even seen with plenty of extra toilet paper and hand sanitizers, always filled. The ranger was very kind and helpful and stays on site. There is a pipe coming out of the 200 foot mesa wall leading from a spring which has a large flow rate. Filtering water is not necessary. The campground is about 1/2 mile long and you can set up camp on any flat spot. Campfires is not allowed, meaning you get fresh air all the time! We did not have any issues with large animals, tied our food up in a tree, but a mouse visited our campsite each night and climbed up our legs when we sat at the picnic table. Picnic tables are abundant and the locals have done an outstanding job of placing them in impossibly difficult places to carry a table, but makes for spectacular lunch spots. Note that getting to the base of Mooney falls requires hike down steps carved in rock by the waterfall. The locals have posted handrails made of heavy chains in these areas and even carved tunnels into the rock. No need for a headlamp, and these paths are relatively safe but could be challenging for those with fear of heights, although one gentleman with a fear made it all the way through and to Beaver Falls. I made the hike with sneakers on and had no problems at all with footing, never slipped. However, I was very deliberate with my steps and moved slowly, moving one foot at a time.

More of the world knows about it so it is not the same but I still keep going back and sharing it with friends who have never been.

Just returned from 2 nights camping at Havasupai. As others have said the place is beautiful. That is the reason I would give it a 5. However, this is supposed to be an overall rating. So....My tips to make this trip even better are:Do not use any of the services the Tribe provide. Such as the mules, or the restaurants. Why?We went to the cafe after the permit office to get a quick bite before heading the last two miles to campground. We order a Hualapai Burger. What a surprise. It was a tortilla wrapped piece of patty. This is not the big issue. The issue was it was served cold, Cold patty, cold tortilla for $10.50 plus tax? Still not the major issue. I asked kindly and courteously could they please heat the meal. The cook in the back took my food put it on the counter and just continued cleaning, washing hands and dishes while I was patiently waiting. Well after 5 minutes of this and still the cook mopping the floors I requested my money back. They did refund me but the service was horrible. I saw on other posts the mentioning of being welcoming. I was not asking to be welcomed I was asking to be given decent customer service. Actually, this made Paris customer service seem to be outstanding.Mules: We paid for round trip mule service for our backpacks. The bags got down to camp just fine. When we retuned to the hill top, after a long hike, our bags were nowhere to be found. We know the bags were on the mules because they passed right by us two times on the trail and they were there. After about 10 minutes of trying to get information from the woman at the top of the hill they told us our bags may be down where the helicopters land. When we arrived, our bags were sitting there and we said we were here to pick up our bags. They stated we had not paid for sending our bags via helicopter. We said that is correct because we paid for them to be delivered round trip via mules! We had our receipts to show the fact but it did not matter. They would not release the bags untill we paid and addtional 20.00/ bag. After a verbal and physical altercation with both the woman and her two thugs we paid the fee with a credit card to get the hell out of there. There is no one to help you if you get into trouble there. As stated I put it on my credit card because I will the dispute the charges with CC company. They already are looking into the incident due to signing uder durress. We believe the bags were dropped off at the helicopter site so they could say we did not pay for helicopter and get extra money from us. It is a scam. So again, consider yourself warned. You are in their land. They are not your friends, they will not help you if you get into trouble, they are only there to take your money and take care of their own. I am not saying don't go. Let me be very clear. What I am saying is be as self sufficient as possible so you don't have to deal with the tribes people. Will I return? Never again. I've done it. I saw the beauty and the ugliness of Havasuapai.

Recently camped between Mooney Falls and Havasu Falls on the Supai Indian Reservation. We camped there in April and it was warm and beautiful. The campground was full and we were lucky to get a beautiful site large enough for our group. Went back again this time in October and found the place just as beautiful but the campground was half empty. We had our pick of the best campsites but not knowing where the sun rose and set we chose a site that ended up in the shade the entire day and was cold. Choose a site on the right side of the canyon and as high up on the hill as you can find. You will have much more sunshine as the temperatures do dip this time of year. Campground was clean, quiet and listening to the water running was soothing as we drifted off to sleep.

I feel very sad and confused about the negative reviews that are posted on this page. We read some of them before we left on our long-planned trip to Havasupai, so we were extremely watchful for signs of animal abuse, rude behavior, and 3rd world living conditions in the village, and I am relieved to say that we did not see one single example of any of those things. Our trip to the Havasupai Indian Reservation/ Havasu Falls was nothing but beautiful, spiritual, humbling, and positive. The hike in and out with packs fully loaded for 5 days of camping was challenging, but breathtaking When we arrived before dawn at Hualapai Hilltop we were met at the top by a local woman who welcomed us and gave us a warning about flash floods that had occurred in the canyon the night before, telling us to watch, and more importantly listen, for signs of possible continuous flash flooding. We hiked for a couple of hours before coming in contact with our first pack animals, and as I said, we were extremely watchful for any signs of abuse or neglect because of reviews we had read on this sight, and we did not see a single sign of it on these, or any of the pack animals we saw the entire 5 days we were there. What we saw were well fed, well groomed, well handled pack animals. These animals are work animals. They are bred and raised to carry supplies, mail, people, and those peoples' belongings in and out of the canyon. The drivers carried willow branch switches or ropes with them and we watched as they occasionally swung the rope or switch lightly to hit the pack animals' hind quarter to keep them moving forward when the going got rocky (and it gets very rocky - this is a canyon, with fallen rocks, steep inclines and declines, and rough going, this is why people pay to have their things packed in and out, and why the pack animals are needed!). All in our party agreed that it was a bit uncomfortable hiking directly through the village, as it felt intrusive to walk right through these peoples' front yards, but every single person we encountered in a service position was nothing but friendly and helpful. We witnessed several extremely rude guests to the reservation treating the workers with nothing short of contempt and arrogance, which may have been why some of those who left negative feedback about their experience with the locals felt they were treated "rudely". One person in our party put it best after we witnessed one of these arrogant jerks talking down to a pack driver when he said, "these people are here to provide us a service, they are not our servants". As far as the locals that live in the village being rude, it's important to remember that when you hike through Havasupai, you are in their HOME! They are not there to welcome you or to serve you, this is their home. They are walking down the streets of their town, going about their daily business. It is not their duty to greet every visitor, or speak to every person they meet. Imagine people approaching you 10, 15, 20 times a day, every single day, while you are doing work in your front yard and expecting you to give them directions or greet every single one of them and carry on a conversation with them. To sum up our experience on the Havasupai Reservation, the hike was challenging, breathtakingly beautiful, and worth every step. The village services were more than adequate, friendly, and helpful. The animals we witnessed, with the exception of one very thin looking horse corralled in one of the resident's back yard, appeared well fed, well cared for, and well treated by every single handler we witnessed. The falls were all that we had hoped they would be, and much more. The campground was clean and maintained every day. The locals who worked there stopped and chatted with us and answered every question we had. Every local who was "on duty" worked very hard, acknowledged us when we passed, and most engaged us in pleasant conversation. The only negative we saw on the whole trip was the behavior of a handful of the visitors. Not only would I recommend a trip to this beautiful, magical, spiritual place, we are already planning on a return visit ourselves.

A group of friends and I just returned from a week long trip to Havasupai. I was compelled to write an review regarding our experience. The place is truly magical. The falls, the river and the land was spectacular. Although the hike in and out was a bit of a challenge, we had a great time. Our last day hiking out of Havasupai left us with some heartbreaking images of the packing mules being horribly abused and beaten. The mule drivers pelted them with rocks, beat them with rods and punched them to get them moving along the route. When the last set of mules arrived with our gear, one mule collapsed from exhaustion. The driver began kicking him in the torso and the head to try and get the animal up which made the animals condition worse. He laughed and made jokes about animal cruelty. People unloaded it's crates and tried to give the mule some water. We left wondering if the poor thing survived. I'll reconsider ever returning to Havasupai. Their primary source of income is tourism but how can anyone morally give money to people that have no respect or compassion for these creatures. Please do read other reviews on Tripadvisor about others' witnessing this. Truly devastating!

I want to share my Havasupai experience. It is one of those must see, bucket list kind of places. I have given the Havasupai Tribe permission and rights to all of my photos to use in any way they see fit for promoting this piece of PRIVATE Paradise. I also shot a little video to give you a sense of the falls and river. It can be seen on Vimeo. The title is Havasupai Falls and length is 02:23. The more accurate reviews involve compassion for the people and their way of life. The more respect shown while visiting will equal more enjoyment taken from the experience. I think next time I will hike in and ride out on horseback. When riding in on horse for our trip, it would have been nice to get a few more hours to enjoy the slot canyons and red rock formations.As people state the earlier you set out, the better. I recommend staying in Seligman, AZ. Such a great little historical town with so much character. Even my 19yr old cousin loved it. It is out of the way if coming from the West but well worth it for comfort and things to see and do.

First of all: I don't try to review Havasu Falls, which are absolutely beautiful and worth 5-stars review. Waterfalls are part of the reservation and only reason to visit this place. As long as you are not social worker, missionary or ethnographer you will not have any reason to go to that place. But waterfalls are absolutely worth to visit. Check reviews for Havasu Falls for details.

There are much better places to camp and hike in the Grand Canyon......I do not support these people and they do not deserve our money as visitors........here is why:The short version of my experience:This was my 10th time visiting the Grand Canyon and my 5th time camping in various locations.....THIS LOCATION is NOT worth the trip......this was my Worst Grand Canyon visit and very disappointing.....there are better falls to see and better hiking & camping within the Grand Canyon at other locations.....I would not recommend coming to Supai village....rural Mexico is cleaner than this place, these local village people are very rude, unhelpful, try to scam you, and the worst thing is they mistreat the animals beyond belief......mules are given way too much weight, don't get water, have open sores & old scares, and they "un-usable" horses are like walking skeletons because they let them starve to death........I am sad that I went here and gave them my money......in a normal city, these people would be arrested for animal cruelty but they are safe because they live on the reservation.........these people are truly sick in the head!!!So here is the long version of my experience:The grand canyon hike itself was awesome and the waterfalls were pretty but there are many other waterfalls to see in the United States....there are 2 main reasons why I do not recommend coming here...1) Rudeness.....I felt like I was imposing just by asking questions to the local employees & the reservation help desk......with the exception of 2 young ladies, majority of the local employees working & living in the village were extremely rude the entire time we were there....they were not very helpful with anything.....if you asked them a question, they would act like they didn't speak English or they would roll their eyes and mumble something or just completely ignore you...they were NOT hospitable at all......I have traveled all over the world & in rural places and have never had much issue with communicating with people but I have never been around people who were so rude overall......and on 2 separate occasions, two of them tried to scam us by charging us extra money, once for camping and once for the helicopter (the only reason we didn't pay extra is because someone next to us told us the correct price)...what stinks is that you don't have a choice because you are 10+ miles in and too far to hike out the same day......2) Animal Abuse & Mistreatment......many of the mules had open sores on them and old scares from wounds.....they were consistently carrying more weight than they should......in one section of the village, there were about 15 horses pinned up with no food or water, they were very skinny with every bone showing....after seeing the mule abuse, I decided to take the helicopter out and as I was waiting (I signed up at 8am and was told it would be 2-2.5 hours, however, it took 6 hours before we left on a horse), I spoke to two of the volunteer veterinarians who make visits regularly to give the local dogs shots who said that they let these horses/mules starve and die once they have no more use for them; that they view animals differently than we do....plus, there were many stray dogs running around with signs posted in the village saying to be careful and to watch out for them.....these people are sick and do not deserve our money or support......I cannot believe that people keep coming back here to camp and support them....If I would have known, I would not have come here and my heart hurts for the animals.

We took a tour with Arizona Outdoor Adventures to the Havasupai Campground at Supai AZ. Our guides were Tim, Sarah and Jeremy; all were excellent. They provided the meals for us as well as the camping gear. A visit to Havasu Falls is an experience everyone should have. The hike in and out is very challenging but a great experience.

This was several years ago that we hiked down and stayed in the lodge. The reservation was basic and people were not the most friendly, but we met really nice hikers and had a great time. Definitely a trip all that are able should take.

Even thou we have to walk for 6 hours to reach this reservation from the top of Grand Canyon , it totally worth it! Out of this world landscaping and waterfalls.....yes, you have to be prepare with food, drinks and water for the hike but you will find a "cafeteria" , a little restaurant where they serve home made meals but we even had thanksgiving dinner!!, they also have a small grocery store, but do not expect to find fancy items.... They also have public restrooms on the trails. Very wild atmosphere. You will need to be in food shape to do this. To return to the top you have to choose to do it by foot, by horse or helicopter ride.....your decision!