Day 16 - Hovenweep N.M. - Canyon de Chelly N.M.

Just  ease any confusion about the titles of each day - the letters (N.M.) stand for "National Monument) not New Mexico.

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "Shay") is located near the east side of Arizona and is near the northeast corner of the state
It is a large series of  canyons that are ringed with red sandstone cliffs.  It is on the Navajo Reservation and has many Native Americans families living & farming the canyon floor.  This is just as it has been for the last 5000 years according to the evidence. 

This one shows some of the fields that are planted wanting for the rains that usually come next month.

This is "Spider Rock" which stands 800` high and is important in the traditions of the Navajo people.

There are large open truck tours of the valley floor (it is the only way to enter - with one exception - the valley floor) but because of a large dust "event", I did not go.  Instead I drove the two rims and checked out the vistas from the overlooks.

There are several "ruins" in the valley and I hiked down to (the only legal way to get to the valley floor) which took about 3 hours round trip - I think the elevation is about 500` from the rim down.  These are the "White House Ruins" and were occupied about 1,000 years ago.

You can see some petroglyps on the wall just below the upper ruins.  Very amazing to that they have lasted all of these years.

A view back up to the rim from the valley floor.  If you look very closely - right in the middle of the picture is a large group of people stopped on their hike up - this will give you some scale.

A look at the dust cloud that the wind kicked up - this is looking west toward the town of Chinle from up on the rim drive.  The dust was blowing right into the canyon and almost blacked out the sun.  The next day I was going to take that truck ride into the valley floor and because of this, I did not go.  As a matter of fact, I decided to get a room for the night and I am glad I did since the next day everything was coated with a fine red dust.  To top it off there was a little rain that night and things were a mess in the morning.  I had to stop and wash my truck before starting out - it sort of needed it anyway.

That it for this day.