Canyon de Chelly

Our next stop was Canyon de Chelly (Chinle AZ) where we spent two days. This national monument is jointly administered by the park service and the Navaho Nation.

We hiked the whitehouse trail. It is the only trail down into the canyon that is open to the public without a guide.

 

The Canyons are gorgeous and spying the Anastazi ruins from up on the overlooks is a

treat.

 

 

It leads one to wonder at the ingenuity of the people who found there way into these canyons and made a go of it. How did they get materials up to those seems in the rock, or etch them out? Or was the ground closer? Imagine people going up and down handholds in the rocks, or using wooden ladders to climb up and down to visit with friends and work the land below.

Today their Navaho descendents have inherited a simple life and a killer view.