Last I heard it was still closed, so that's why. From what Derek said, there is still a lot of clean up work to, so the ETA to being opened again I think was this spring.
Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty bummed about the flash floods. I was planning on making a trip somewhat soon. Hopefully the flood didnt damage the travertine too much.
As you hike to the campground from the village you'll find some rather significant changes: two new falls (80' & 30'--no official names yet other than Fifty Foot Falls, which are shown on any 1983 USGS-based topo software if you're interested in the exact location in the watershed) about four hundred yards upstream from Navajo Falls which sadly is completely dry with no return in sight; a major re-routing of the trail in spots; entirely new foot bridges; slightly lower (5'-8') and more singularly channeled Havasu Falls as it tumbles over the ledge; brand new, rebuilt travertine pools and tubs immediately below Havasu Falls; far fewer trees around those pools and throughout the length of the creek below the new falls; for now, a campground much flatter and uniform as a result of 4'-6' of deposited silt that has also, for now, buried almost all of the wonderful pour-offs, riffles and grotto-like reflecting pools that used to characterize the creek as it flowed thru the campground. Not much visible damage to Mooney Falls other than one fairly large travertine curtain close to the top of the falls that had a good section sheared off. The large pools under both Havasu and Mooney Falls lost about a third of their waters due to silt build-up.
Didn't get a chance to get below Mooney in November when I saw all this so I'm not sure of the impact downstream to Beaver Falls. My educated guess is that while there will be debris piles in places and some trees gone, that most of the worst damage was between Fifty Foot Falls and Mooney Falls.
The Havasupai are working round the clock to clean up debris piles in the campground, restore the pools, re-install picnic tables. This was proceeding nicely.
The toughest job looks to be the re-routing of the trail away from some geologically unstable areas (erosion, vulnerability to any future flooding, underground springs) and rebuilding the various foot bridges.
Even though all were evacuated safely during this past summer's flood, still more and improved evacuation proceedures and advance warning systems are being put into place.
The Tourism Office (928 448 2121) remains confident they can re-open to hikers and campers by May 1 and are planning to start taking reservations again sometime in February or March. The canyon suffered some pretty significant damage so you can expect it's gonna take a while to return to its prestine, pre-flood state.
But it's also good to remember that 1993 & 1997 were also huge flood years and probably almost all the incredible pix you've seen have been taken in the years since those floods. Floods are part of the life cycle in the Grand Canyon and recovery is often much quicker than one would think!!
As I know more and get the OK to put pix up, FM'rs will be the first to know.
I am thinking about a visit to the falls around thanksgiving. Wondering how many days I will need.
Have never been before and will probably be a long time till I am back. I'd prefer to spend adequate time checking it out and not be in a rush to get good images, but do not want to waste time either.
Suggestions / ideas ? Will be camping and open to some hiking.
