Day 10, Tuesday
6/19 – Hermosa CO to Chinle AZ & Canyon de Chelly, 203 miles/3538 ttl
We left
the high country for the desert of Arizona.
Canyon de
Chelly (pronounced shay) is part of the National Park system but is not
federally owned. It is owned and inhabited
by the Navajo people. Very little of the (very large) canyon is accessible
without a Navajo guide. Daniel (our guide) took us on a 3 hour tour and showed
us Anasazi ruins and Anasazi & Navajo pictographs.
Anasazi Pictographs - inc Kokopelli |
White House ruins |
Navajo families run horses and livestock in
the canyon, and grow corn, hay, and peaches. There are also wild horses in the
canyon. The animals do not leave because there is no water outside the
canyon. In the 3 hours we saw only a
very small portion of the canyon because travel via 4wd is slow in deep running
sand but Daniel shared stories from his grandfather and childhood in the
canyon. He said it was 2 hours travel time (one way) to his mothers property in the canyon.
One of the stories Daniel told us was of the stick holding up the canyon wall and how he told his son to never remove the stick or the canyon would collapse. He had us all going until he showed us the huge wall and the stick.
Horses in the Canyon |
Daniel - our Navajo Guide |
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