Canyon de Chelly National Monument

What an amazing place! Located in the northeast corner of Arizona is the Navajo Indian Reservation and a part of that area is a National Monument. Just a few blocks from the entrance is a FREE campground; there are no hookups but the sites are ok and it is certainly convenient. There are actually two canyons and the cliffs range from 200 to 1000 feet. To travel to the canyon floor, you need a native guide, but the drives on the north and south rims are open to the public and very well marked. We opted for the cliff drives and what sites we saw. I took well over 200 photographs.

This was the first of nine canyons we visited. On the floor of the canyon, the people who have lived here for many generations, still raise corn, peaches, and other crops. We were told that many of the families live in the canyon in the summer and move to the cliffs in the fall so that children may attend school and it is easier to get around. The canyons hold heat and are a very fertile growing land.

The canyons are fed by a river - the river actually formed the canyons thousands of years ago. In the canyons are many cliff dwellings that were constructed by "the ancients" and occupied in the 1200's and sometimes before that. All the cliff dwellings are located on the north side to make the most of the warming sun in the winter and as a protection from storms.

The picture below is of the 'White House In Between" named because of white on the rock. The pueblo below once was tall enough to merge with the ruins above. There were over 80 rooms and 4 kivas (meeting areas). It was a thriving farming village 800 years ago.

The goats roam freely around the canyons, as do the horses and sheep.

This is another one of the amazing canyons; both close up and from afar, they are amazing.

At each of the overlook areas, there were Navajo men and women, young and old, selling their handmade wares - jewelry, woven mats and rugs, and sand painting. This is the young artist from whom I bought a new piece for the motorhome (it looks good on the desk).And this is the canyon from which "my rock" was collected - he said it reminded him of an arrowhead and that is why he picked it to design.

This canyon is called Antelope Canyon because of the drawings on the canyon walls which are said to be done by a well known Navajo artist inthe 1830's. Look carfully and you will be ruins of the ancient village that occupied this canyon; there are several round kivas, meeting areas, and who knows how many rooms in this village. I think this particular picture of the canyon wall looks like a face...

This is the floor of the canyon, you can almost see the crops growing...

And this is the canyon from a distance.

The last picture is the of the most famous part of Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock. The overlook is 1000 feet from the floor of the canyon, so you can tell how tall this rock is.

This place was beautiful - a must see, if you haven't been there!