Topic: supai USA
travel guide
Havasu Canyon
City: Supai
Tel: +1 928 448 2121
Havasu Canyon is a paradisiacal gorge where turquoise waters cascade into travertine pools
and graceful willows and lofty cottonwoods provide shade and greenery in an extraordinary
setting of towering red sandstone cliffs beneath a cerulean sky. It is a side branch of
the Grand Canyon that was once the home of a prehistoric people but more recently it has
been the occupied by the Havasupai for the past 800 years. Seasonal rainfall, melting snow
and percolating water are drained by Cataract Creek which rises on Bill Williams Mountain
and crosses the Coconino Plateau. The creek wanders across the high plains for about 50
miles before dipping down into the steep sided Cataract Canyon. Except for flash floods,
Cataract Creek is usually a mere trickle until it reaches Havasu Springs where an
underground river gushes forth to form Havasu Creek. With a steady flow rate of about
28,000 gallons per minute and a heavy concentration of suspended calcium carbonate, the
river bed is rapidly lined with limestone that reflects the sunlight and gives the creek
its striking blue-green color. The waters plunge over Navajo Falls, Havasu Falls (100ft.),
Mooney Falls (200ft.) on the way to the Colorado River about ten miles away from Supai
Village.Water is especially precious in a dry and arid land and the Havasupai consider the
source of this river to be a sacred place that is intimately associated with the legend of
their origin. There are legends, too, of their end for they believe that the Wigleeva, two
stone pillars that overlook their village, are guardian spirits and their destruction will
signal the demise of the Havasupai.
