Canyon de Chelly

We spent a few days in Holbrook, Arizona.  Earlier I blogged about Petrified Forest National Park.  We also drove into the Navajo/Hopi reservation area to visit Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced "shay').  This is a remarkable canyon that is interesting for its geology, but it also holds dozens of cave dwellings.  The people who built these are called the Ancient Pueblo People (used to be called Anasazi) who the current day Zuni consider their forefathers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_chelly

It was an extremely windy day, and, in the area of the Canyon, the wind carried a lot of sand.

The rock here is sandstone and the canyon walls are about 600 feet to the floor of the canyon.  We were very far from the cave buildings and they looked like miniatures.

 These are trucks, driving around the creek at the floor of the canyon.

 This is an area known as Spider Rock.

We decided to take a jeep tour of the canyon.  This is something that is controlled by the Navajo.  We linked up with Percy and his Jeep Wrangler.

This was a great experience.  We spent two hours getting close to the ruins, petroglyphs, and other aspects of the canyon floor.

 As you saw in earlier pictures, there are no paved roads in the canyon.  We were going in and out of the creek.  At one point Percy pointed to the remains of a jeep he claimed had sunk in quick sand.  These pictures might give you an idea of what the ride was like.  Look closely and you can see Bill's white knuckles.

Percy had grown up in the canyon and gave us stories and a perspective that we would not get from tour books.

Here are a few more images.

A final note - Matthew got a Junior Ranger for Canyon de Chelly.  We had also turned in his work for Petrified Forest National Park that morning, so he got two Jr. Ranger badges in one day!  Quite an accomplishment.