How to Hike to Beaver Falls in Havasupai

“I held Dave’s hand and tried not to fall over as we walked through the water to get our photo taken. The water was actually quite warm which was nice! I gazed out around me. This had to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

Beaver Falls is one of the 5 waterfalls in Havasupai and in my opinion, the most underrated. After an adventurous day hike, you will reach the most beautiful tiered, turquoise coloured waterfall. The whole Beaver Falls area is an actual paradise.

Beaver Falls is not just a hiking trail. To get to the stunning waterfall, you will need to cross a few rivers and do some scrambling / rock climbing.

Everything you need to know to hike to Beaver Falls in Havasupai is in this blog post, including our experience.

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Everything You Need to Know About Hiking to Beaver Falls

✈ Planning your Havasupai trip

🥾 Hike Stats

*The above hike stats are our stats from the beginning of the campground, all of the way to Beaver Falls and back to the beginning of the campground. We also spent a lot of time running around taking photos so that is also included in the above stats.

📍 Where is Beaver Falls

Beaver Falls is one of the waterfalls along the Havasupai trail, located in Arizona. It is about a 3.5 hour drive from Las Vegas. To get to Beaver Falls, you will first need to complete a long hike into the campground, followed by another hike the next day to see Beaver Falls.

🎒 How hard is the hike to Beaver Falls

The Beavers Falls trail has sections that are very technical so I would classify this as a difficult hike. There is a very steep climb at the start which you need to take to get down to Mooney Falls and the Beaver Falls hike continues on from there.

There are also quite a few scrambling sections later on in the hike once you get closer to Beaver Falls. These sections involve ladders and scrambling up and down rocks. None of them are as hard as the Mooney Falls descent but it is still worth noting.

As well as the scrambling, you will need to cross 3 water crossings on the Beaver Falls trail. Personally, I quite enjoyed the water crossings and much preferred them to the scrambling but it was a little annoying having to constantly change shoes.

⌚ How long does it take to hike to Beaver Falls

It took us about 4.5 hours altogether from our campsite which was near the very beginning of the campground. This also includes us stopping for lunch at Beaver Falls and taking photos at both Beaver Falls and Mooney Falls for a solid amount of time. 😅

📆 Best time to hike to Beaver Falls

The best time to visit Havasupai is outside of Summer because it gets super stinking hot during Summer and I can guarantee that you will probably not feel like hiking. March – April and September – November are generally the best times for weather and for avoiding the monsoon season.

We visited Havasupai at the beginning of November and were very worried that it was going to be freezing, especially when doing the water crossings on the Beaver Falls Trail. Luckily, it wasn’t as cold as we had expected and the water was actually warmer than the air outside which was nice.

I recommend starting your hike to Beaver Falls first thing in the morning. There is a lot of scrambling and water crossing so the hike will take you longer than you realise.

🚻 Toilets along the Beaver Falls Trail

There are no toilets along the Beaver Falls trail from the campground. The last lot of toilets are located on the edge of the campground right before you reach the lookout above Mooney Falls.

Beaver Falls Trail Description (& my experience)

The hike to Mooney Falls and the terrifying descent

The Beaver Falls trail starts with the hike to Mooney Falls. From the campsites, it is not far to the top of Mooney Falls. After you reach the top, you will need to descend down to the waterfall to officially start the trail to Beaver Falls.

Mooney Falls to Beaver Falls

Once you have made it down to Mooney Falls, congrats by the way! It’s not the easiest climb! Take lots of photos at Mooney Falls and enjoy the view before continuing on to Beaver Falls.

You will want to head away from the waterfall and veer to the left, crossing over some stepping stones and logs to the very left hand side of the canyon. From here you will start the easy section of the hike. The trail goes up and down a little but it’s nothing crazy and soon you will come to your first water crossing.

The first 2 water crossings were pretty close to each other so you could probably leave your water shoes on in between them. We didn’t know this and ended up changing back into our hiking boots after every single crossing which was very time consuming. We changed this on the way back and it was SO much better.

With the water levels where they were at when we were there, we didn’t need to use our dry bags, but it’s probably worth bringing one along with you just in case.

After the first water crossing, we came across a couple of big-horned sheep which we were not expecting. They kept to themselves and were fine to keep munching away on the grass as we passed.

Ladders and more scrambling

Eventually, you will pass through a little alcove and find a ladder propped up against the canyon wall. This is a sign that you are almost there! It is also where the rest of the scrambling begins.

After the ladder, you will need to navigate your way using both your hands and legs up the rockside. It’s not as hard or scary as the Mooney Falls but I did still find it a little challenging.

Finally, you will get your first few glimpses of Beaver Falls, but to get down there… more climbing. You will need to climb down another small ladder which will take you to a picnic table. This is where we had our lunch. It was the perfect spot.

I think the climb down looks way worse when you first see it (the photo below) than it actually is.

If you continue on down past the picnic table, you can climb all the way down to the water.

Are there any water crossings to get to Beaver Falls?

There are 3 water crossings to get to Beaver Falls. The water at each of these crossing is at a different height, but this will vary depending on the time of the year and the recent weather.

I am 161cm tall which is around 5 ft 3. The deepest crossing that we did to get to Beaver Falls in November came up to just below my hips. The other 2 were around knee height or lower.

What should I pack for Beaver Falls

• Swimsuit
• Grippy shoes or hiking boots
• A raincoat (you get quite wet and cold on the climb down)
• Climbing or gardening gloves (for the climb)
• Snacks and water
• A sun hat
• Dry bag
• Water shoes like my Tevas for the water crossings

What is so special about Beaver Falls?

Beaver Falls, (in my opinion) is the most underrated waterfall in the Havasupai reservation. It often gets overshadowed by both Mooney and Havasu Falls, however, Beaver Falls looks quite different and unique to the other 2 waterfalls.

It has tiers of separate pools al cascading down to each other and you can get into the water in each of them. It almost reminds me of Pamukkale’s hot springs in Turkey.

Can you swim in Beaver Falls?

You can definitely swim in Beaver Falls! It is a bit of a scramble to get down to the water from the trail though. Once you are at the water, there are a few different pools that you could take a dip in.

Beware though… Just because you can swim in the pools does not mean that you should cliff jump into them. When researching information for this blog post, I came across a several news articles where people had been seriously injured from jumping into the pools and had to be airlifted out.

The water is pretty shallow in a lot of places and the deeper sections have rocks that you could land on and insure yourself.

What makes the water at Beaver Falls so blue?

The water at Beaver Falls gets its bright blue colour from the Calcium carbonate and magnesium minerals that are picked up from the rocks underground as the water passes through.

You might also enjoy:

• Everything You Need to Know About the Climb Down to Mooney Falls in Havasupai
• How to Get a Permit for Havasupai

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