Havasu Canyon, Arizona

Soaring red cliffs, bright blue rivers, deep green valleys, glorious waterfalls, and the most isolated town in America

Havasu Falls (pre-2008) in Havasu Canyon, Havasuapi Indian Reservation, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Picture red rock canyons rising high on either side to a cobalt sky. Picture a river running through that canyon, shaded by spreading cottonwood and tinted a neon shade of pale blue-turquoise.

Picture that river stair-stepping gently down the canyon floor, spilling down endless series of natural rock basins, then plunging—again and again—over spectacular waterfalls.

Before I hiked down to spend a few days camping by the river in Havasu Canyon, I had always assumed the pictures I had seen of it were Photoshopped.

They weren't. This place truly is that amazing.

Havasu Canyon lies at the end of a 10-mile trail, which lies at the end of a long dirt road, making the tiny Supai Indian village in the canyon the most isolated town in the entire United States.

In fact, it's the only place where the U.S. postal services still uses a mule train to deliver the mail.

Hiking boot or horse are really the only two ways to get here—unless you pony up big bucks for the helicopter service.

So, why would I include a place in Arizona in a piece intended to address the "boycott Arizona" movement? Because Havasu Canyon—a feeder to the Grand Canyon—is not, technically, in Arizona. It is on the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

When Gerald Ford bundled a pair of national monuments and other surrounding federal lands into the new Grand Canyon National Park in 1975, he also gave a 185,000-acre tract of the territory back to the native Havasupai who had always lived there.

(In case the name "Havasupai" rings a bell, it may be because in late April 2010, it made headlines when the tribe won a legal battle to protect their rights to their own DNA, which was being used in scientific studies beyond the scope of the original agreement.)

So claiming that Havasu Canyon is not in Arizona may be a technicality, but it is a technicality that has resonance in this particular case. Perhaps Jay Leno put it best in a jest about the new Arizona immigration law.

"It's an unbelievable law. And it's already starting to backfire. Today, a group of Native Americans pulled over a bunch of white guys and said, 'Let's see your papers.'"

Info: www.havasupaitribe.com

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