The Havasupai – Service Learning Adventure

Start and End Dates:	October 15 – 20, 2012	For Reservations / Information Call Stewart Toll Free: 1-866-701-2113 To Contact Us Via Email Fill Out Our Web Inquiry Form
Duration:	6 days, 6 nights
Location:	Peach Springs and Supai, Arizona
Price starting at:	$1175.00 – Price may vary slightly based on date – please call for details.
Program Type:	Hiking and Service Learning
Meals:	Included.

OVERVIEW

A Service Project Working with the Elders of the Havasupai Village,  Assisting with their Gardens and Irrigation Needs.  You will hike a fabulous canyon system of the central Grand Canyon to come and work with the Havasupai people.

Havasu Canyon has been a treasured destination for hundreds of thousands of hikers and visitors in the last decades. This massive flood of humanity through the tiny hamlet of Supai has been both blessing and bane for these first peoples, the Havasupai.  The Havasupai reside in a slice of paradise deep in The Grand Canyon. Supai, as the town is now know, is probably the most remote town in all of the continental United States (Supai is the only U.S. town that still receives its mail by horse packtrain).  The Havasupai balance precariously between the modern and the ancient worlds.

Another flood has even more sharply impacted the Havasupai recently. You may have heard of the raging floodwaters that have coursed through the town and campgrounds in 2008 and 2010, permanently altering the shape and character of this idyllic setting. Older Falls vanished and new Falls appeared.  The flood however also has made the future more precarious as massive erosion now tracks upstream towards the flatland where the village resides.

Background

Our project aims to assist the farmers of this town, elderly and youth alike, to maintain and upgrade their agricultural plots, their irrigation canal system, and their homesteads. We will work to help the Havasupai attain sustainability between their hunting, gathering, farming, and tourism worlds. You will be ushered into this world, and hopefully will come away in touch with your own inner hunter / gatherer / gardener / explorer. See the canyon from the Havasupai’s perspective. We will explore this remote world on its own terms.

Education

Your course leaders are professional naturalists and historians, as well as long-time associates with the tribe, and will bring the past and present together through interpretive arts and by arranging home visits and speakers from among the local traditionalists and progressives.

CURRICULUM - Grand Canyon Geography and Geology; The Colorado Plateau; The Havasupai and the Cerbat Tradition – First Arrivals to the Americas?; SW First Peoples – Modern Issues and Solutions; Ethnobotoany of the Cerbat and GC Cultures; Southwestern Pre-History and Archaeology Overview; Ecology of the Canyon;  Travertine and Travertine Dams – Geology of the Falls and Havasu Creek; and so much more…

Sample Itinerary

Day 1 – Check-in at Grand Canyon Caverns, Orientation
DETAILS  — We arrive at the Grand Canyon Caverns motorlodge, a classic piece of Route 66 americana and the closest hotel to our fabled trailhead.  Check-in in the ballroom after 3 PM.  After a hearty dinner, we’ll have an orientation session to finalize the details of the upcoming trek and project.
Hotel: Grand Canyon Caverns Inn
Meals: Dinner

Day 2 – Mobilize early to the trailhead.  Load packhorses. Down the trail to Supai.
DETAILS  — Our morning drive takes into the Hualapai and Havasupai canyon country, vast grasslands, pine forests, and precipitous rims await.  We arrive to the trailhead and make final preparations for our gear and supplies to be shuttled by the packtrains that Havasupai men operate.  A little stretching and rimtime for photos and we are off, ten miles of awesome Grand Canyon scenery and great trails to our even more spectacular campground.  Camp set up and a great outdoor meal will top off a full day of exploration and discovery.
Accomodations: Havasu Creek Camp
Meals: All

Days 3-6 – Working with the Havasupai people to build their sustainability.  Comprehending the Havasupai Reservation, the Falls, and the culture, excursions, lectures and presentations. 
DETAILS  — We will alternate our daytime activities between service learning and light hiking.  After all, you cannot love what you do not know.  We want you to fall in love with the canyon and its marvels just as we have.  Then it’s back to work.  Expect harvesting, digging, stacking, cleaning, and lots of laughter and swimming in the ever-present flow of blue green waters…  The Havasupai are jovial people and value our contributions.
Accomodations: Havasu Creek Camp
Meals: All

Day 7 – Up. Up, and away.  Hiking, horseback riding, or helicoptering to the rim.
DETAILS  — We pack our things early and prep them for the packtrains. A good breakfast and a round of congratulations for another successful project will have us whistling up the trail.   Birdsong and the rush of water and wind escort us out of the verdant oasis of Havasu Creek and back into the Sonoran desert for a heart-thumping climb to the world above, the Colorado Plateau rim.  Back to the Caverns for a farewell dinner and recognition of our good deeds, and time for planning what comes next!.
Accomodations: Grand Canyon Caverns Inn
Meals: All

Day 8 – Depart
DETAILS  — On your own to arrive home or to the next adventure….