Havasu Canyon

The Havasu Canyon is can only be reached by foot starting at the top of the canyon or by boat, traveling down the Colorado river and hiking up from there, but people take this long difficult hike to see the spectacular water. Havasu canyon is know for its bright blue green water, this is why the natives from this area are named Havasu Baaja, which in English translates to " People of the Blue Green Waters". These waters look like a tropical oasis in the middle of a desert canyon. The reasoning for the unique waters is the mineral make up of the water.
The Water that fills the Havasu Creek has a heavy concentration of Calcium Carbonate along with aragonite and clay that is made up of past and present vegetation in the area. As well as effecting the color of the water the content of the water also has to do with the formation of the travertine pools along this passage of water. Any debris that flows into the current of the water is added to the thick substance that over time adds up to make dams continuously down the creek. From the natural damming of the water, floods are very common in this area and these pools that are created can become very deep. Over time these once small creeks become hard to cross, so pioneers who wanted to discover more about these canyons used to blow apart these damns with dynamite just so the waters were easy to cross by foot or horse.

The vegetation in this canyon has a much wider variate than the grand canyon area it flows to because of the rich mineral and organic make of on the water. At the base of the Grand Canyon the vegetation in mostly dry and desert like but where side canyon and creeks come in there is a ticker, green type of vegetation. In the Havasu Canyon specifically there are cotton wood trees that line the water and there are also red-bud and ash trees.

The climate of this canyon could be a wet-dry continental, monsoon or desert climate. The summer season is dry and the winter season is wet with frequent flooding. The soil is dry, coarse and does not contain much organic material so when heavy rain falls above the canyon it all runs into the canyon creating magnificent waterfalls and dangerous flash floods.