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Published: February 27th 2007
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Canyon de Chelly
Our first view of the north rim Date Visited: Sunday, 18th Feb 2007.
Canyon de Chelly(pronounced Canyon de Shey) is 3 hours NW of Holbrook. It is 104 miles E of Monument Valley, AZ.
Day started early. After the to-go continental breakfast & a spectacular sunrise, we left Holbrook. The gas prices shocked me. A place such as Holbrook gives gas for $2.11 a gallon. California is a loooong way ahead!
Where is Canyon de Chelly? Ganesh was interested in taking the 9.00am jeep tour at Canyon de Chelly. But we were 20 minutes late.
We reached Chinle around 9.20 am. Just missed the jeep tour. We thought we would probably take the noon tour.
Park Map of Canyon de Chelly Jeep tours take you into the canyon, visit some ruins & ideally take around 3 hours. Individual tours can cost upto $130 per couple. Thunderbird lodge runs a 6 wheeler jeep & can take a lot of people. They charge $40 per person.
There is no entrance fee to the park because it is in Navajo nation.
If we'd never been into a canyon, probably we would've been more interested in it. But we'd done Grand Canyon 6 months ago. So we decided to drop it & drive
the rims instead. It took us 2 hours to do the North rim overlooks.
South rim is more pretty as the road goes closer to the canyon. There are restaurant options in Chinle, but we carried our own picnic lunch which we had in the visitor center's picnic area. Highlight of the lunch was not the lunch itself, but a black lean dog staring at me. Ganesh is generally dog-friendly, but this guy stared at him too 😱.
It is well worth it to stop at every overlook. It is still a Navajo community. Some people still live & cultivate inside the canyon. To get into the canyon, you need to have an authorized Navajo guide, except for the white house ruins. So, we kept it till the very last. Spider rock is definitely a beauty!
It had snowed the previous day. There was some snow & some ice in a lot of places. Treacherous!
White house ruins trail starts off at white house overlook and goes steep into the canyon floor. It is a 2.5 mile round trip. The trail board read "moderately strenous".
We decided to do it anyway. So, even if
Antelope ruins
from the overlook the board said "strenuous", we still would have done it.
It was a life changing experience. A hike into a different world. The canyon walls were stunning! So many formations.
While going down, you cannot help notice all the natural caves, the various lines formed from water flowing in them & the obvious red colour. Considering this being the only trail, it is pretty crowded.
Personally, I have more difficulty going down than climbing up. My knees just don't like them. We were in a rush & we did it in 1.5 hrs, just in time to catch the sunset colours on the canyon rim.
Though it was a cloudy day, still gave us some dusk colours.
Just before 6.00 pm, we left the park.
We had reservations at Flagstaff, 220 miles away. We buzzed off to Luxury Inn around 9.30 pm. Flagstaff was cold! The first thing we noticed: the trains!!! Every 30 minutes honking(na uh! I wouldn't call that a whistle) without fail. Surprisingly, it did not affect my sleep until 3.30am next morning.
Tip: I do not know if this works in CA, but when in Arizona, carrying your own travel mug
Antelope ruins
closer view down into the canyon for a hot choc will save you some cash & a tree's life. So, please do!
Heard so much about the red rocks in Sedona.
Off to Sedona in the morning! Rains expected!!
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SDSK
non-member comment
Awesome!!!
The scenary was Awesome.