We arrived at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay") on Wednesday June 19th and drove along the south rim, stopping at the overlooks and trying to spot the ruins of the cliff dwellings built by the Anasazi over 700 years ago. It is in the middle of nowhere in Northeast Arizona. I don't know how the Native Americans, the Anasazi, found it in the first place. The Anasazi, who occupied the ruins before they were ruins, mysteriously left the area around 1300 AD. Nobody knows for sure why, but my theory is they went to Flagstaff or Phoenix to be closer to shopping and restaurants.
Canyon de Chelly has been occupied continuously for over 5,000 years and today is farmed by a few Navajo Indians. In the middle photo, you can see the crop patterns and dirt roads. It's hard to get a feel for how far below the canyon rim the valley is, but if you look ant the truck tracks, you can tell it's a long way down.
Lorri bought a "petroglyph" from a local artist who was very friendly and knowledgeable. However, I couldn't get him to remove the Yankees hat for the photo. He explained to us that the Navajo people refer to themselves as "Diné", meaning "the people".
If you look closely in the center of the photo on the left you can see ruins in the sun and just above in an alcove in the shade, you can see more ruins. The photo in the middle shows a portion of one of the overlooks and the valley below. On the right, you are looking straight down. That little speck on the dirt road right in the middle of the photo is a full-size pickup truck. It's a long way down.
Here we are being tourists!
This is our camping spot which had one really good thing going for it: it was FREE! That's right, the campground at Canyon de Chelly is free!
The next morning we hiked down into the canyon on White House Trail, which naturally leads to the White House Ruins. Here are some photos of that adventure.
Lorri on the trail on the left and the trail in the foreground and canyon in the background on the right.
The White House Ruins is not where the president of the Anasazi lived, it is where there is a sort of white house at the top middle of the ruin, visible in the photos on the left and right, above.
Some petroglyphs at the White House. Note the round "eye" that helps to form a fish figure in the lower left.
<----Lorri Jack---->
Some important information.
Please click this link for the National Park Service information on Canyon de Chelly http://www.nps.gov/cach/ or this one for GORP stuff http://gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_nm/az_canyo.htm
