Canyon de Chelly

Tuesday, July 7

We made the quick trip north from Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Ganado and were in Chinle by late morning.  Chinle is small, but has most of the basic essentials.  However, we went directly on to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which is on the outskirts of town.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service, but is totally within the Navajo nation.  The monument encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly (south), del Muerto (north), and Monument (east).  You can take self-guided drives along the south and north rims.  However, Navajo families still live and farm in the canyon.  Access to the canyon floor is restricted and visitors are allowed to travel in the canyons only when accompanied by a park ranger or an authorized Navajo guide. The only exception is the White House Ruin Trail.  (More about that in a moment.)  We did not pursue a private guide, although I think there were many who would have gladly taken us into the canyon for a fee.  We picked up a map and talked briefly to the craftsman who was making silver jewelry in the lobby of the visitor's center, then drove back into town for lunch at Burger King (the only fast food in town) before setting out to explore the monument.


The scenery is beautiful.  The rim is dry desert with relatively little color.  In contrast is the vivid green of the canyon floor and the red rocks of the canyon walls.

There were multiple overlooks on the 17 mile south rim trail to admire these spectacular vistas.

There was more than just natural beauty.  The canyon has been occupied by humans for thousands of years.  Several ruins on the canyon walls are still visible across the canyon.  The most famous of these is White House Ruins.

White House Ruins from the overlook.  Can you see them?

I could see it with the binoculars, but it was hard to see well with the naked eye.  A longer lens definitely helps here.

Zooming in for a better look

White House Ruins.  Note the truck and vendor stands in the lower right for a sense of scale.

We could have taken the 2.5 mile round trip White House Trail down to the ruins from this point.  However, (1) it was hot with a blazing mid-day sun, (2) it was a 600 foot drop in elevation, requiring a 600 foot elevation gain on the climb back out of the canyon, and (3) there were storms on the horizon which could have produced very slick slickrock if it did actually rain.  These all seemed like good reasons not to make the trek down to the ruins.  Maybe next time.  (Click here for a YouTube video of the hike I found online).

The signature feature of Canyon de Chelly, other than the White House Ruins, is Spider Rock.   Spider Rock is an 800 foot sandstone spire at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon.  The overlook is down a well maintained 200 yard trail from the parking lot.

Spider Rock.  Note the river and the unpaved road on the canyon floor to the left.  

Needless to say, Spider Rock is spectacular.  Even standing above it, it is hard to comprehend how big it is.  The view was especially dramatic with thunderstorms approaching from across the canyon.  Just to make things more exciting, we experienced very strong winds as we got to the overlook.  Even with the chinstrap of my hat cinched tightly (definitely a fashion statement!), I was sure I was going to lose my hat.  However, I did not and we had plenty of time to take various pictures before we thought we needed to get back to the car to avoid getting wet.

While the thunderstorm came through, we drove back to Chinle and checked into the motel.  We then made the drive back to Spider Rock Overlook to try out the Frog's new panorama setup. It turned out to be a great time to be there.  There were few people and the temperature was very comfortable.  The Frog took pictures for both horizontal and vertical panoramas.  Stitching the many images together will require learning new software and much data massaging.  Stay tuned.

Trying out the panorama setup at Spider Rock Overlook

After a busy day, we were happy to make our way back to the hotel and dinner.  I was especially excited to try a Navajo taco, which is chili and various taco fixings on Navajo fry bread. Fry bread had been one of two traditional Navajo foods on my "must try" list.  Fry bread and Navajo tacos were great.  The other food, mutton stew, which I had later in the trip, was much less exciting.