Havasu Falls

Havasu Falls is the most photographed waterfall in the American Southwest — a 30 m chute of vivid turquoise water dropping into a travertine pool inside a side canyon of the Grand Canyon, on the sovereign Havasupai Indian Reservation. The water gets its colour from high concentrations of dissolved calcium carbonate, which precipitates out on the rock walls and the streambed, creating the unusually saturated blue-green you see in every photograph. Three other waterfalls — Mooney, Beaver, and the lesser-known Fifty Foot Falls — form a chain through the same canyon.

Access is by foot only — a 16 km descent from Hualapai Hilltop on a dirt-road trailhead reachable from the Mother Road (Route 66) west of Williams, Arizona. The trail drops 600 m down a rough switchback (Hualapai Canyon) into Havasu Canyon, then follows the canyon north past Supai village (a settlement of 200 people, the only inhabited village inside the Grand Canyon system) and on to the campground 2 km past Havasu Falls. Mooney Falls (60 m, the chain's tallest) is just past the campground, accessed by a knee-shaking descent down chained wooden ladders pinned to wet limestone. Beaver Falls and the Confluence with the Colorado are further day-hikes from camp.

A Havasupai Reservation permit is mandatory and famously hard to get — the entire year's allocation opens on February 1 at 8 AM Arizona time and typically sells out within an hour. Permits are 3-night minimums (around $375 per person inclusive of camping and entry fees). No day-hikes; no walk-ins. The visitor season is February through November (the tribe closes the canyon December–January). Best months are April–May and September–October — summer brings extreme heat and the risk of monsoonal flash floods (a 2008 flash flood destroyed parts of the trail and changed the falls' shape; a 2022 flood again closed the canyon for two months). Water is widely available from the canyon's springs but should be filtered.