CANYON DE CHELLY AND MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

CANYON DE CHELLY:  This place is located in the eastern side of the Navajo Nation within Arizona.  We left Payson, AZ and drove the 200 some miles through some pretty neat high country with a lot of ponderosa pines – kind of made us homesick in a way.  Then dropped down in altitude to the flatland and then gained a little altitude up to this place.  We got to C De C just after lunch and found a campsite in their large cottonwood grove campground.  They have changed the camping here and two days before we arrived they started charging admission.  And the agency that is now responsible for the campground is the Navajo Nation vs the National Park Service.  Oh well.  After setting up, we headed to the south rim drive and checked out some of the overlooks.  They have some pretty neat ruins in this area, but only accessible by 4 x 4 paid tours and then you are restricted to how close you can get to them.  The next morning we did the only hike that you can do without a guide and that is to the whitehouse ruin.  Nice trail down to the bottom of the canyon, even many of the Navajos use it to get down there to sell their wares to the tourists.  They really have some nice art and jewelry at a fair price I might add. After our hike, we drove the north rim to a couple of overlooks then headed to Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado.   Click on a picture to enlarge them.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK:  This place is well worth the stop for anyone interested in the ancient Puebloan people and their culture.  They used to be referred to as the Anasazi.  We arrived fairly late so got up early the next day to get going, only to hear it start to rain.  So we delayed until that stopped before going through part of the park – some of it is closed until the middle of May.  And I might add, it was pretty cool that morning also – high altitude with snow banks still showing.  Some of the hikes you have to have a ranger with you, and we were really fortunate to have a Navajo who works part time for the park as he is a graduate student still going to school.  He is majoring in ancient cultures and plans on getting a doctorate.  Very, very knowledgeable and gave us a new perspective on lives of these peoples.