Back in the beginning of July I wrote about and posted pictures from my trip to Havasu Canyon, a beautiful waterfalled tributary of the Colorado River and home to the Havasupai tribe. On August 17 heavy thunderstorms led to a dam collapse, which in turn caused a flash flood that devastated the canyon. Bridges out, trails vanished, trees ripped out, the campground destroyed and one of the canyon's famous waterfalls I was lucky enough to see (see pictures) is gone forever! There is now a gorge where the waterfall was. More than 420 tourists and tribe members were evacuated by helicopter. The canyon is closed to tourists until at least Spring 2009. Google "Havasupai flood" or check out videos on YouTube if you are interested. There's movies of what should be a 30 foot wide and 70 foot deep gorge filled to the brim with turbulent brown water. From what I have seen it will take many years for the canyon, vegetation and waterfalls to "recover." Some of it is changed forever. And tourism is the main source of income for the Havasupai. Again I feel very lucky to have seen this special place before this catastrophic flood. RIP Navajo Falls.
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