Canyon de Chelly

On Thursday of the post-wedding week, Mike, Karen, Jason, and I drove to Canyon de Chelly, AZ - a national monument because of its geological and historical significance.  (Chelly, which is pronounced Shay, is a Spanish/French rendering of the Navajo word for canyon.)  (Susie was a bit under the weather - post-wedding syndrome? - but the prospect of bouncing around for three hours in a jeep, peering over 800 ft. cliffs, and hiking to such opportunities wouldn't excite her in any case.)

The Canyon is in NE AZ, on the Navajo Reservation. En route we stopped at Window Rock, AZ, headquarters of the Navajo Nation, named for the window in the rock you see here:

The park adjacent to the Window Rock has this statue recognizing the Navajo Code Talkers, the Navajo soldiers who communicated battle orders and other secret information during WWII in their native tongue.  Check out the dramatic narration at the above website.  There are not many Code Talkers left.  Later, at a restaurant in Chinle, I saw an elderly Navajo gentleman wearing a cap labeled Code Talker - awesome.

We had booked a canyon jeep tour for four o'clock, so, arriving about one, we had time to check into our motel (the historic Thunderbird Lodge) and drive to the canyon overlooks on the north side of the canyon (a v-shaped pair of canyons forms Canyon de Chelly; if you have Google Earth you can get a good view of the terrain).  Some sample shots:

It's a photographer's paradise.  Here's one at work now:

Our tour-jeep driver took us a ways up both canyons, pointing out cliff-dwelling ruins and petroglyphs and other rock art along the way.  (Except for one location - the White House ruin - you cannot enter the Canyon without a Navajo-certified guide.)  Also, a substantial number of Navajo families summer in the Canyon, raising some crops and tending sheep.  Here are a few pictures from our tour:

Do you see a face in profile on this cliff face?

The next morning we drove out to the White House Ruin overlook on the south rim from where you can hike to the ruin - about 45 mins. going down.  Some views on the way down:

And some views from the canyon floor:

There are signs saying do not take pictures of the residents, so I didn't, but under that little cluster of trees in the center of this picture is a small corral with some sheep in it.  A Navajo lady was tending them as we walked by.  In the trees at the left there is a hogan, her summer residence, I presume.

A small herd of horses had the run of the canyon.

 
And, here is the White House Ruin:

The lower ruins were once a multi-story structure connecting to the cliff houses above.

Incidentally, at most of the overlooks and at the White House Ruin there are vendors selling jewelry, rock art, and pottery.

Back on top, we checked out the other overlooks.  This first picture is significant for this reason:  Years ago, when Mike was home from college, he and I took an Indian Country driving tour: Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, and Acoma Pueblo (as I recall).  So, this trip was sort of a stroll down memory lane for us. At this overlook back then there was an Indian rock band out on this point being photographed for an album cover.

Probably the most known feature of the Canyon is this pair of spires called Spider Rock.  The taller spire(800 ft. tall) is regarded as the home of Spider Woman, a figure in the Navajo creation story and who is also said to be the one who taught the Navajo to weave.  We didn't have a good sun angle for pictures, but you can easily google up some great pictures.

And here Karen demonstrates how we controlled the child in our group:

Actually, at about this time I was wandering around in the background of this picture and Jason came after me.

We left Chinle in early afternoon and headed for home.  Stopped at El Morro - next posting.