Friday, June 22, 2012

Day 10, Canyon de Chelly


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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