Neil & Barb's Travel Blog: 2012

We left Monument Valley to drive to Chinle, which is another town in the Navajo Nation, and is the home of the Canyon De Chelly. There were a few interesting sites along the way.

I saw this formation near the town of Mexican Hat. The regularity was so out of place, I drove over to investigate.

Oh.

The rock that gave the place its name.

Comb Ridge is an interesting formation which is several miles long.

The Canyon De Chelly is an amazing geological feature deep in the Navajo Nation. It is about 30 miles long with a depth that increases from 30 feet at the mouth of the canyon, to 1000 feet at the end. The only vehicle access is via a 4x4 track that runs along the sandy bed of the [usually] dry river. There are about a dozen walking trails that climb up out of the canyon to the rim.

We arrived in Chinle, the Navajo town near the mouth of the canyon, about 1pm.
This was too late in the day to arrange a tour inside the canyon - you have to have an official Navajo guide and a suitable vehicle. But visitors are allowed to do a self-drive along the road that runs next to the south rim, so we opted for that. There are several places where you can park, walk in and look into the canyon.

The walls are about 500 feet high here. About 50 Navajo families have farms or horse pastures inside the canyon.

The day was unusually cloudy, so the photos are a bit drab.

The road/riverbed.

The Anasazi ancestors of the Navajo built these pueblos about 800 years ago. Access was via a sloped hill (not shown, to left.) The canyon floor is about 20 feet deeper now than it was then.

The farther you go into the canyon, the higher the steep walls become.

The famous "White House" Anasazi pueblo, as viewed from the opposite rim.

A close up view of the same.

Who needs the Grand Canyon for a sense of depth and distance?

Some horses roaming freely in the canyon. (I used the telephoto.) A second horse is behind the tree.

There are a number of overhangs - don't look down.

Steeper and deeper.

Navajo name for these ruins translates as "sliding house".

Nice colours here. I discovered later that the grey/green trees are Russian Olives, planted as a Depression-era work project, and now requiring culling because they displace the native trees.

We bought some pieces from the artist, Roger Begay.

This is the Spider Woman formation, about 900 feet tall, where two canyons meet.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed back to our hotel for the evening.

The town of Chinle itself is a bit depressing. On the route from the park to our hotel, we pass the juvenile corrections facility, alcohol treatment centre, child services office, sexual abuse counselling office, and a high school that declares itself a drug-free zone.

A normal Chinle streetscape. Note trash and razor wire.

The next morning, we went down to the Visitor centre to arrange for a canyon tour. The only guide there was already booked, but he volunteered to call his father (also a guide)
and set a tour up for us.

This is the Jeep we hired. We think it was brought out of retirement for our tour.

Access is via deeply rutted, soft sand dry riverbed.

Dash is too dusty to read the instruments. No matter, the odometer was disconnected at about 400K.

Elfrida with our guide Daniel. He is off to France next week, to accompany his girlfriend on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

One advantage of ground-level access is the visibility of the Anasazi rock art.

Closeup of same. The hand-silhouttes remind me of Australian Aborigines.

Unusual figures, because they are men on horseback. So these date from 1500s, after the Spanish introduced horses to North America.

A rock formation called "The Two Owls"

More rock art. Figures with two hands raised signify "Stay away!" Two hands down signify "You may approach."

Rock formation called "The Sleeping Duck"

Vertical streaks are natural, caused by plant tannins washed over rim of canyon.
The pueblo is today about twice as high from the canyon floor as when it was built.