We were a bit bemused by this rather worn-looking horse just cruising around loose in the parking lot. Learned much later that the Havasupai turn their horses loose to recover in the grasslands atop the canyon after they've been working hard on the trails. There are family watering troughs in various places across the plateau.

We left Seligman around 6:30, arrived at Hualapai Hilltop around 8:30, and started our descent. Arrived in the village of Supai midafternoon and kicked back in the heat. Lots of rocks and cliffs and sky and trail photos, plus flowers, dogs, horses, mules and even antelope.

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elf1 > We left the hotel about 6:30 a.m. Linda looks quite chipper with her pack on, although we're both a bit worried about the heat.

elf1 > Driving along Historic Route 66 was so much more pleasant than the Interstate. We hardly passed anyone else for 2 hours. We were right up close to the side of the road so that we could see some of the spring flowers. And, to my delight, three critters wayyy out in the grassland that turned out to be antelope.

elf1 > The previous picture is a bit fuzzy because this is what they really looked like through my telephoto lens. I wasn't even sure until I got home that they were really antelope and not deer.

elf1 > We drove through miles and miles of this. Very pretty, in an entirely different way from mountains or coastlines.

elf1 > We started catching glimpses of the Grand Canyon in the distance beyond the grass, scrub, tumbleweeds, and profuse orange flowers that I think were a variety of paintbrush. This was one of several biomes through which we passed on Indian Route 18 in the Havasupai Reservation.

elf1 > We finally reached the trailhead at Hualapai Hilltop. (Pronounced hoo AL a pie or hWALL a pie; heard both). It wasn't what we had expected; maybe a hundred vehicles, possibly more, in a very long parking area lining the side of a cliff.

elf1 > Linda (in yellow) cruises out along the parking lot to get a good look at our descent.

elf1 > Then heads back in the other direction among all those cars.

elf1 > We were a bit bemused by this rather worn-looking horse just cruising around loose in the parking lot. Learned much later that the Havasupai turn their horses loose to recover in the grasslands atop the canyon after they've been working hard on the trails. There are family watering troughs in various places across the plateau.

We were a bit bemused by this rather worn-looking horse just cruising around loose in the parking lot. Learned much later that the Havasupai turn their horses loose to recover in the grasslands atop the canyon after they've been working hard on the trails. There are family watering troughs in various places across the plateau.