Blogs from Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, United States, North America

Canyon de Chelly Am Weg von Page nach Albuquerque hab ich beim Canyon de Chelly vorbeigeschaut.... read more

We slept pretty good last night. We got up and showered and were ready to go around 10AM. The girls wanted to take a look at the small gift shop at the RV Park before we left. It was a 10x10 room with sand floors. The girls each got an Indian bracelet. We packed up and headed out. We stopped along the way to look at the canyons, they were pretty spectacular. In one of them, you could see Indian ruins. The last canyon we looked at had a few houses at the bottom and people riding horses. We next stopped at the Four Corners, which was about 30 miles out of our way, but worth it. The girls really wanted to see it. A bunch of bikers were there and offered to take our family ... read more

Valerie and I have tried to figure out why our parents never traveled up this way to see these parks. They traveled for a year all over the USA in Rosie I, but seemly missed this area of the country. It is really sad as Dad, with his interest in archeology, would have thoroughly enjoyed them. The only thing we can come up with is that it isn’t on the west-east route to El Paso, Salt Lake, or Flagstaff, which were the routes we usually traveled as kids to see family, and I believe they traveled after we were raised. Friday, May 4th Canyon de Chelly campground. Starting mileage was 24830 with blue sky and 77 degrees at 1:30 when we began our exploration of the South rim of the park. The park consists of several ... read more

Many areas of the southwest show artifacts from layers of history. Ancient Pueblo ruins, old Spanish buildings, Victorian houses, and much else populate the area. Northeast Arizona unusually shows multiple layers of Native American history, first of the Ancient Pueloans and then from the Navajo. The Navajo are relatively recent arrivals, having migrated from the northeast in the 1500s. Very few spots on the reservation are as crucial to both groups as Canyon De Chelly, where I’m going today. Canyon de Chelly Visitors have two main options for seeing the canyon. They can drive roads along the rim and stare down from multiple overlooks. While the views are dramatic, they are all at a distance.... read more

We headed South from Bryce Canyon, passing through Kanab for the third time. One of the great things about this trip is that we have almost never gone back over the same road, but this time it was necessary. We drove on into Arizona, heading east. We passed the Glen Canyon dam (surprisingly narrow, impressively deep) and into the Navajo reservation. The Navajo Nation encompasses a large part of the Northeastern corner of Arizona. I think all of us were impressed with the sense of community on the reservation, and with the way the Navajos have decided to live. They have not built casinos like so many of the native people, and do not permit sales of alcohol on the reservation. Certainly the people are not wealthy, but they do seem to truly identify with their ... read more