We were picked up from our campsite for our 4WD tour into
Canyon de Chelly. Because it is a site of cultural significance to the Navajo,
you can’t go in without an approved and registered Navajo guide. Our guide was
a lady called Maureen. All formalities completed and we were underway. The tour
follows a dry riverbed into the canyon, and it was pretty challenging driving.
The sand is deep and fluffy and it was quite a job keeping the 4WD going. As we
wound our way up the canyon the red rock walls increased in height, from 30
feet at the canyon entrance to a towering 1000ft at the highest points.
We stopped regularly to look at the many cliff drawings,
pictographs and ruined cliff dwellings. Having seen the canyon from the rim, it
was lovely to get up close and see things in detail. Some of the rock drawings
run right along ledges for quite a long way, depicting scenes like the rounding
up of the Navajo by the Spanish and the first antelope hunt on their return to
Canyon de Chelly. Some of the drawings are very faded with age and when you sit
and look, you see more and more.
One of the interesting cliff painting styles is by the Hopi
tribe. They passed through the canyon and traded cliff art for supplies.
The guide told us that de Chelly is a Spanish mispronunciation
and misspelling of the Navajo word for canyon. So the name means Canyon Canyon.
On the trip we passed the many farming plots, with
cornstalks, fruit trees and little houses. Most of the Navajo move up to the
Canyon rim for the winters to make it easier for the kids to attend school and
the adults to get to work.
It was quite a sight to see the amazing colours of the rock
walls and the sheer height of the steep sides of the canyon. We drove along the
base of one of the walls that slopes inward – it’s called Martini Rock because
when you look up you have a massive hangover… Ha ha!
We finished the tour at lunchtime and only just in time as
the heavens opened and it poured with rain. Thunder and lightning too.
We drove south through the rain, and it cleared up a little
as we travelled. We had a stop at the Historic Hubble Trading Post, established
in 1878. Mr Hubble set up quite an enterprise, he built a trading empire that
included stage and freight lines as well as 24 trading posts, a wholesale house
in Winslow, and other business and ranch properties. The trading post
still operates and it was fun to poke around the shelves and see such a mix of
goods – chocolate, yo yos, skin cream, horse collars, books, rugs, canned food,
and the list goes on!
We took a tour of the Hubble homestead too. Avid collectors
of art, the walls are covered in paintings and drawings, and the ceiling of the
great room is covered with woven baskets.
We walked around the farm buildings
after and saw a turkey, his “gobble” noise kept us laughing for a while.
Finally back on the I40, or Route 66 and heading west again
to Holbrook.
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