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July 2000

Arizona - Navajo Nation

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 19:03:38

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Almost all of northwest Arizona as well as surrounding areas in New Mexico, Utah and Colorado are part of either the Navajo or Hopi reservations. We spent an entire day visiting the Navajo nation. The center of the Navajo national both spiritually and geographically is the Canyon de Chelley (pronounced de-SHAY). This V-shaped canyon suddenly opens in an otherwise flat section of the desert. The town of Chinle is located at the point of the V and is location of the visitor center. Of course, we didn't want to have to backtrack to reach the other canyon so we approached from the southern endpoint of the V which is not recommended for the faint of heart drivers out there. The road does connect - though in the most rudimentary sense of the word. Most of the canyon is off-limits without a Navajo guide because it is the most sacred location in the Navajo religion. The Navajo believe that they are descended from the Anasazi indians whose ruins can be found throughout the canyon. The one accessible location is the White House ruin, shown in this (1) picture. Don't worry if you can't find it - in the bottom left corner of the sheer cliff opposite is a small pile of rubble which are the ruins. A hiking trail approaches it from between the two buttes on the right of the picture.

This is a short (3 mile roundtrip) trail (2) but it is exceedingly steep and unfortunately exposed to the sun as it winds its way into the canyon. The canyon floor looks lush from above but it is deceiving. On the rim, the temperature was about 101 (38 C), but at the bottom it was 115 F (46 C).

This is actually a different ruin called Antelope House (3,4) but it is similar in appearance to White House. Most of the settlements were built under overhanging cliffs on ledges off the canyon floor. This gave them some protection from floods as well as the sun. At the time the Anasazi lived here (circa 1000 AD) the valley was quite fertile due to the eruption ...

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