Ya'at'ééh – Welcome im Canyon de Chelly

On Saturday morning we joined a Grand Circle tour operators' fam tour in Canyon de Chelly, which Donovan was accompanying.
Canyon de Chelly is a Nation Monument and Tribal Park which can only be accessed by the Navajos, who live in the canyons, usually seasonally (in summer) in hogans, let their cattle and sheep grass and plant their beans, corn and squash. The land is still used in the traditional way and therefore individuals are not allowed in the canyon, only groups with Navajo guides. Which is unusual. The only hike everybody can do is the one to the White House Ruin, for the rest, it's tours, which are offered in abundance, e.g. from the Thunderbird Lodge, but also there are several stables which offer tours on horseback.

The National Monument consists of two canyons: in the South the Canyon de Chelly, in the North the Canyon del Muerto. The whole area was populated by Ancestral Puebloans and several ruins - cliff dwellings - are to be seen. Later the Navajo inhabited the place. Petroglyphs of Indians on horseback are proof for that. The canyons are a sacred place for the Navajo still today, because they were rounded up in the valley by Colonel Kit Carson in 1863 and, as a consequence, deported to Eastern New Mexico in the so-called Long Walk. 1868 Chief Manuelito succeeded in stipulating a contract that allowed his people to return to their homeland.


After a short bus ride, we hiked down the White House Trail to White House Ruins (approx. 1,5 mi/2,5 km), down into the lush and beautiful Canyon de Chelly, with its trees glimmering bright yellow in the sun. The dwellings to be seen in an alcove are remains of a prehistoric Indian settlement and petroglyphs. Also, Navajo vendors were offering their jewellery down there and made good business with the group.



With an Austrian military jeep we drove East, from the valley bottom (see pics below) to the mouth of the canyon, passing Junction and First Ruins - also remains of prehistoric settlements. After a 2-hour whirlwind tour we got back to the hotel and bid farewell to the group. After lunch with Donovan - great posole (a Mexican stew of hominy - soaked white corn -, pork and chile peppers) and lamb stew - sheep/mutton is very important for the Navajo and a main ingredient in their nutrition - we continued our exploration of the park on the North Rim Drive with Donovan, with stops at Canyon del Muerto: at Antelope House Overlook - again, ancestral pueblons dwellings, see picture - and at Mummy Cave Overlook, the place where the conflict between soldiers and Navajo took place. It shows the caves where the Navajo hid and sad things happened.

Continuing on to Dine College, the only college, which is operated by a tribe in the U.S. It focuses on the Dine culture and language, which is a fully recognized language in America and still spoken widely on the reservation. The campus is architecturally interesting as well and is proud of its Cultural Center/Museum. About 2,000 students are enrolled.

Landscape changed on the way to Wheatfields Lake - a man-made reservoir -, and it ressembled a landscape in Colorado with forests and hills. Along the border to NM we continued to Window Rock, our final destination of the day.






Window Rock is the "Navajo Capital", the administrative center and seat of the Navajo Nation Council Chamber (pic). Lots of government buildings around and we sort of passed Joe Leaphorn's office, the main character of Tony Hillerman's mysteries. The main feature of Window Rocks, however, is the Navajo Tribal Park, where the famous rock formation is standing. A trail wound up to the arch's top and we climbed it with Donovan at sunset. What a spectacular finale of another interesting day!

On the Rez

Currently, we are in Chinle/AZ, on the huge Navajo Reservation (71.000 qkm, their flag is to be seen on the picture), comprising NE Arizona, NW New Mexico and SE Utah. Located in the "Four Corners Region", this is the largest reservation area in the U.S. with about 170.000 tribal members (Navajo or Dine) living here, about six people per square mile!

Scenery has changed on the drive East and South: We drove on mesas (plateaus) with red buttes towering. The road went through sparsely populated tribal land and villages like Kayenta, which were rather conglomerations of trailer homes and uniform tribal (low income) housing for the tribal members. For the rest it was a trailer here, a hogan (the typical Navajo housing, see pic) there, some free-roaming cattle, sheep and horses (pic), but neither agriculture, nor industry, big stores or casinos. The hotels, outfitters and parks at Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley seem to be the main employers. Cars and pickups are pretty run down on the rez, stray dogs and lots of poor people, selling items like jewellery or pinon nuts on the streets. On rez ground no beer can be bought or even consumed, but in the only supermarket in the area they sell much more soft drinks (and junk food) as in any other region. Wondering, whether some beer would hurt much more than all the sugar from these products... Now they drive to Gallup/NM to get a drunk and back home by car, which is even worse.

We got up at 6 am today, packed and in the dark we drove about 45 minutes to Goulding's at Monument Valley - the picture was taken when we approached it in the early morning. We were expected for breakfast with the manager, who told us about the founders, a sheep trader by the name of Harry Goulding and his wife, who acquired land here in the 1920ies and opened a trading post with the help of the Navajos. During the Great Depression they came up with the idea of trying to attract Hollywood movie producers. The landscape was perfect and famous producer John Ford was among the first to come to check out the scenery. Enthusiastic about it, he started with John Wayne movies (first was "Stage Coach"). Wayne's cabin is still standing on the grounds and movie pictures are to be seen in the museum.

In the course of time, more infrastructure was added and a "village" was developed, with hotel, trading post, museum, restaurant, etc. Goulding's is still today on private land, not part of the reservation. The company employs about 250 people, mostly Navajos, and, also operates tours into the Monument Valley. We took part at a "half-day tour" of 3,5 hours. Though I got almost car sick during this rough ride in a truck with open seating for about 20 people, but it's better to book a tour than to drive with a rental car in this Tribal Park. Roads are not paved and pretty rough, hiking is - with one exception - not permitted and the tour trucks only are allowed to drive on otherwise not public roads. There are rumors that one day they'll shut down the park for individual travelers and just let tour groups in.

After having been in the lonesome "wilderness" around Bluff for a couple of days , we first were a little shocked being confronted with so many tourists (mostly Chinese groups). Also, after having had two excellent Navajo guides in Bluff, the Jeep-Bus-Tours here were more for bigger crowds (of course) and less informative. First stop was at a Hogan - the typical Navajo housing (see pic above) for a weaving demonstration, a couple more stops followed, most of the time vendors had set up tables with jewellery or posed for pictures (like the cowboy horseback below).

Also, we were so spoiled from the previous geological diversity that we considered the Red Navajo Sandstone here as almost boring. But, joking aside, the formations piling up are really impressive and no wonder, the film industry liked the place! Our guide Leo also stopped at a couple of petroglyphs on rock panels and at a dwelling called Echo Cave (pic). Following are a couple of pics of some of the fantastic rock formations:

We left "MV" - like the locals say - towards Chinle in the early afternoon and arrived at about 4 pm. Checked in the Thunderbird Lodge - a motel with restaurant and trading post - and departed again to check out the Visitor Center of the Park (pic) and buy some groceries in the local supermarket before we met with Donovan, our Navajo friend from many trade shows, and drove with him to two observation points up on the mesa to see the sunset at Canyon de Chelly:

A very special hike

At 8:30 am on Thursday morning a red jeep of Four Corners Adventures, the partner company of Wild Rivers Expeditions, picked us up at our second, equally beautiful hotel in Bluff: The Desert Rose (see pics). Our room was large and elegantly furnished, with a balcony for star-watching, and there was a large swimming pool.

With our Navajo guide Louis (pic), we drove from Bluff via Muki Dugway (which we drove yesterday) up to Cedar Mesa. This high plateau is considered to contain the largest concentration of Ancestral Puebloan ruins (see pic below) in the Four Corners Region and we saw some of them.

Cedar Mesa was and is used by the Navajo as hunting grounds as well as a place to gather dry wood for heating. Wood of trees being hit by lightning or storm can't be harvested. That was only one of the Navajo "taboos", as Louis told us. Being a modern-traditional Navajo Indian himself, he spoke the Dine language and knew well about traditions, culture and history. In addition, he was - contrary to the usual "Indian way" - talkative and interested for the world at the same time. We spent a great day with him and learned more than ever about the Navajo way.

The name "Cedar Mesa", of course, traces back to the cedars, which grow in abundance here, but really special is the cryptobiotic soil (see pic) which is endangered by cattle grasing here and by people hiking here without following the trails. Cryptobiotic soil crusts, consist of soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses and they increase the stability of otherwise easily eroded soils.

On a gravel road we drove into the woods, parked and started our hike. Frankly, we didn't know at all, what to expect, Louis didn't tell us before, which was probably a good thing! It started out flat and even over the plateau, then slick rock showed and the rocks, we had to cross, grew and became more slanting when we criss-crossed them on our way to the Citadel ruins. Wow, partly it was became really steep, nothing for people with a fear of heights or unstable footing. See pictures below for our trail. Couldn't take pics of the real rough passages, had to concentrate on my steps.

When we approached Road and Lime Canyons we crossed on sort of a footbridge and walked on to the foot of the Citadel. The last climb was pretty rough, more than head-high rocks we had to hoist us up before we stood up there and soaked in the vastness, the quietness, the majestic landscape and the ancient ruins here. The Citadel was, as the name says, most probably a village in a strategically very cleverly planned location, the visibility and loneliness of the place are just fantastic. This dwelling of the Ancestral Puebloans showed several small rooms in a row, purpose not exactly known.

Destination coming in view: The Citadell

And that's us, having succeeded:

Peter peeking and me resting...


What a view and how calm and peaceful it is!

He was watching us up there:

Since the dwelling is considered a sacred place still by the Navajo, we didn't have lunch here, but climbed half-way down to another little plateau, where Louis served sandwiches and other snacks. Invigorated, we walked the rest of the trail back, not as frightened anymore looking down...

Peter checking out our airy lunch place:

Back at the jeep after about three miles in total in about 6.500 ft. height (2.200 m) we drove on to Muley Point, another fantastic viewpoint up on Cedar Mesa, where Monument Valley - our destination for the next day - was to be seen in the background. Then down the Moki Dugway again into the Valley of Gods and back to Bluff.

All we needed after returning to the hotel at 4:30 pm was the pool and, even more, the adjacent hot whirlpool. And, even better, after soaking and loading down pics, we were invited to a delicious family-style meal of ham and gravy, macaroni & cheese made from scratch, kale, butternut squash and freshly baked bread ...