When We Could Travel – A Look Back (IV)

…continuing with a look back at our extensive 2006 road trip adventure throughout parts of the southwestern USA. 

Our next stop was at a place we had visited once before.  Actually it was just about 24 years earlier!  Another way for me to look at it is that our 2006 trip was 14 years ago…and our previous road trip in 1982 was 38 years ago!  Time sure does fly!

So what was this repeat attraction?

We decided to retrace our visit to Canyon de Chelly National Monument in the northeastern corner, (the Four Corners region), of Arizona.  This National Monument was created in 1931 and it is entirely within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.

In the 2006 photo above, I’m standing with our guide in preparation for a tour of Canyon de Chelly.  If visitors wish to tour the canyon itself, rather than just look down from the rim, privately owned Navajo companies offer tours of the canyon via horseback, hiking or via four-wheel drive vehicles.  There isn’t an entrance fee to enter this 83,840 acre park and view it from the rim, the Navajo Nation does charge for tours of the canyon floor. 

In 2006, Laurie would have preferred to go by horseback I’m sure, but she had pity on the poor horse that would have been stuck with me on his or her back!

Stepping back in time…this was Laurie as we waited for our tour to begin back in 1982.  Note the limited vegetation and the riverbed behind her.  At the entrance to the canyons and the visitor center, visitors are already at an elevation of 5,510 feet. 

This is the ‘river’ that we encountered when we visited Canyon de Chelly in 2006.  This small flow through the sand was actually just the result of a release of a little water from a nearby dam operated by the Navajo Nation.  Perhaps it was a dry year... Note the heavy tree cover at the mouth of the canyon.

This was the beginning of our tour back in 1982.  Water, water everywhere!  The river (the Chinle Wash) was flowing freely to our left.  That car buried in the mud, (obviously not a 4-wheel drive vehicle), was the culmination of a wild ride by a local teenager. 

This National Monument actually encompasses the floors and rims of 3 major canyons: de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument.  The canyons were all formed by streams with their headwaters in the Chuska Mountains just east of the Monument.  The Chuska Mountains are forested and reach up to about 10,000 feet in elevation.  Runoff from rain and snow pack provides about 50% of the Navajo Nation’s water supply.

Here are a couple of views of the impressive bluff near the entrance to Canyon de Chelly.  The entire monument is owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust of the Navajo Nation.  It’s the only National Park Service unit that is owned and managed in this manner.  Roughly 40 Navajo families currently live in the park but people have lived in the canyons for nearly 5,000 years.

The ancestors of the Navajo, the ancient Puebloans or Anasazi found that these canyons were an ideal place to plant crops and raise families.  The first settlers built pit houses which were eventually replaced with more sophisticated homes as more families migrated to the area.  Homes were built in the alcoves along the cliffs to take advantage of both the sunlight and for protection.

The first resident of the canyon didn’t build permanent homes, but the remains of their campsites and the petroglyphs (images etched, picked or carved) or pictographs (painted) on the canyon walls tell many stories.  There are hundreds of these images on the canyon walls.  The only way to see them is with a Navajo guide.

There are ruins scattered all along the canyon.  Some, like the one shown above, are relatively large.  Around the year 1150 it’s estimated that 600 – 800 people lived in Canyon de Chelly, probably the peak of its population.  They continued to thrive here until the mid-1300s when the Puebloans left the canyons to seek better farmlands. 

These are the largest ruins at Canyon de Chelly.  The first photo was taken in 1982 and the second in 2006.  Note the changes… First, lots of people in the second photo.  Second, it’s been fenced off to control access.  Third is the growth of greenery in from of the ruins.

The White House Ruin, the cliff dwelling, is so named for the distinctive white plaster which decorates the ruin’s back wall in the upper part of the dwelling.  White House Ruins are connected to that four-story block of ruins at the base of the 500 foot tall cliff.  Its estimated that perhaps 200 people lived here.

This photo is from 1982.  I was posing for Laurie by the lower left front portion of the White House Ruins.  Our visit was more laid back in 1982.  There were no fences, we could wander around more freely, etc. 

These days Canyon de Chelly is one of the most popular National Monuments in the USA, with about 440,000 visitors in 2018.  Vandalism and theft have forced tighter controls.  The White House Overlook and Trail is the only public trail on the South Rim Drive.  As of 3/12/20, they are closed until further notice due to break-ins.   

This photo represents one huge difference between our visits in 1982 and 2006.  During our earlier visit, much of the land was open, some farming/orchards existed, domesticated animals grazed and willows lined the Chinle Wash.  However, in the following years an aggressive infestation by invasive species not native to the area have changed the landscape…and not for the better.  Tamarisk and Russian olive trees took over the canyon floor.  Overgrazing didn’t help.  In any case, the Chinle Wash had been impacted, land had been eroded and available land for farming had been reduced.  Biological diversity was reduced and a fire hazard had been created.

While we don’t know what has happened since our visit, we do know that there was a major effort to remove the invasive species and to return Canyon de Chelly to a more natural state.  For more information, go to https://www.nps.gov/cach/learn/management/upload/Tamarisk%20&%20R.O.%20Mgmt%20_Final.pdf.

This photo from 1982 shows part of the canyon floor and a very active Chinle Wash from one of the park lookouts along the Defiance Plateau in which the canyons have been carved.  There are 10 visitor lookouts along the rims of de Chelly and de Muerto Canyons. 

This is a 2006 view of the White House Ruins as seen from the aptly named White House Overlook.  The ruins really appear tiny as they sit in and beside the canyon’s rim.  

This photo from 1982 was taken with a zoom lens from one of the visitor’s overlooks…but I don’t know which one.  It shows crops, perhaps fruit trees, and a shelter or Hogan for the Navajo.  The Chinle Wash was just flowing along nearby.

This is a view of Canyon de Chelly from the Spider Rock Overlook.  This overlook is situated at 6,871 feet above sea level.  Near Chinle, the rock walls are only 30 feet high.  Deeper in the Canyon, they are much more dramatic, rising to over 1,000 feet above the canyon’s floor.  Spider Rock rises 800 feet above its base…

One bit of history… Other than raids by other Native American tribes, the canyon was first invaded by “European” peoples in 1805.  But it was in 1863 when Colonel Kit Carson sent US troops through the canyon, killing 23 Native Americans, seizing 200 sheep and destroying hogans, orchards and other crops.  This action eventually led to the surrender of the Navajos and their ‘long walk’ to their internment at Bosque Redondo New Mexico.  They were allowed to return to what is now the Navajo Nation in 1868.

FYI… At this time the Navajo Nation and the Canyon de Chelly National Monument are both closed to visitors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  However, for your future planning and to learn more about this amazing place, just go to https://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

I hope you enjoyed this little photo tour.  Thanks for stopping by!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave