May 19: SW Road Trip Day 10: Canyon de Chelly

Today, we relocate to Chinle, AZ. The site there: Canyon de Chelly. This will be on the short side of travelling days, only 94 miles. After waking, we chill out in the room and don’t worry about an early start. We finally hit the road at about 10:30, saying goodbye to our isolated room adjacent to the airstrip’s hangar:

The Hangar Suite

On the drive, we transition from Monuments to your basic desert. There is very little sign of civilization on the drive besides the road we travel on. After about 80 miles, we start having some traffic as we approach Chinle. We stop at the Junction Restaurant, attached to the Best Western, for lunch. It is adequate. You come to this area for the magnificent scenery, not the food.

We can’t yet check into our room, so we decide to head up to the Canyon’s Rim Drive, about 10 miles away, to check it out. We start with the Northern Rim, taking a half-mile walk from the parking lot to the Antelope Ruins viewpoint. The Canyon has a north arm, Canyon de Los Muertos, and a south arm, Canyon de Chelly.

Canyon de los Muertos

Once again, we are awe-struck. The surprise is how green the valley floor is. We learn, later, that this is actually a problem. The cottonwood trees planted over the last 50 years are drawing about 80 gallons of water a day for each tree, making the canyon more humid than it has ever been. Therefore, the Ruins inside the Canyon are deteriorating at a faster rate. The National Park Service is going to remove many of these trees. This is somewhat controversial.

After enjoying the North Rim views, we head to the South Rim. At the White House Overlook is the one trail a non-Navajo can take into the valley without a guide, The White House Trail. It is about a mile and a quarter long with an 800 foot elevation drop. It is harder to go down than up, because much of the trail is on rock that is slanted into the canyon. It’s not dangerous, but requires attention.

White House Trail (1)

White House Trail (2)

Hiking this trail was actually pretty fun, as there was a class of students from the local junior high school on a field trip here. Those kids were having a great time. They really lightened the mood. Fortunately, the weather was not really warm, the chill of the past several days still lingered. The trail was quite interesting and we made it to the bottom in good time. We then crossed the valley floor to the north side to view the ruins.

White House Ruins

These abodes were occupied from around 1180 to 1350, A.D. The people who lived in them were very small, but were quite agile. There are incredibly difficult “paths” up the walls of the canyon that demand great skill.

Canyon Walls from the Floor

We spend about 15 minutes viewing the ruins, then head back up the trail. We make good time getting back to our car. We hop in and drive back to the Holiday Inn to check in. We have a nice dinner in the Inn’s Restaurant, then call it a night.