Cal and VA | Adventures | Canyon de Chelly

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Tuesday, 17 October 2023 - Up early to meet our Navajo guides for a ride in the Chinle Creek bed traveling up Canyon del Muerto which branches off Canyon de Chelly to the north. We would drive up Tsaile Creek for most the day.

arizona2023 — The sun hitting a Cottonwood tree in the stream bed.

arizona2023 — First stop was the Kokopelli petroglyphs. The ancient Kokopelli is a symbol of fertility. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music.

In this petroglyph you can see Kokopelli on his back playing the flute.

arizona2023 — Travis Terry playing the flute. He stopped between arrangements to tell stories about the native people and music. Travis is a Pima Indian from Sacaton, Arizona, married to a Navajo woman from Chinle.

arizona2023 — The sun hits Travis and his bird flute.

arizona2023 — It was a mystical experience to hear the flute in the canyon floor. It was a great experience to hear Travis.

Travis Terry playing the flute.

arizona2023 — A pretty Cottonwood basking in the sun.

arizona2023 — We drove a short way to Lighting Wall - named for a lighting like petroglyph. Here I took a picture of several turkeys on a smooth red rock.

arizona2023 — The rock art of Canyon del Muerto.

arizona2023 — We spent some time at First Ruins which was our first ruin.

arizona2023 — The workshop class focusing on First Ruins. I am on the far right os the group.

arizona2023 — First Ruins is dwarfed by the size of the cliff walls it was nestled into.

arizona2023 — A black and white of the ruins.

arizona2023 — We stopped at Antelope House Ruins for lunch. This ruins gets its name from the petroglyphs high on the cliff wall of deer and antelope.

arizona2023 — A red antelope on the wall. in front of the antelope you can see what look like horse figures. The sun was harsh on the wall, so it was hard to get a clear picture of the petroglyphs.

arizona2023 — Antelope House Ruins is on ground level. It is a large ruin of several rooms - fences keep the tourists well back from the ruins.

Antelope House was formally excavated in the early 1970's, by archaeologists working with the National Park Service. Each new culture that occupied this site built atop the remains of their predecessors, so as researchers dug into the stratified foundations, they found the pit houses of the Basket Makers at the bottom, and layers of increasingly sophisticated cultural remains, from the Ancestral Pueblo to the Pueblo people, the Hopi, and the Navajo, each of these groups contributing to the timeline of an area that is exceptionally rich in history.

arizona2023 — Amazed by the number of trees which were able to find a way to grow on the cliff face.

arizona2023 — The rock barcode found in the rocks in many places.

arizona2023 — Coyote rock.

arizona2023 — A pretty Cottonwood fitting into a niche against the cliff face.

arizona2023 — Rough red rock on the canyon wall.

arizona2023 — While driving to the next stop we noticed a brilliant tree and made an impromptu stop to take a picture.

arizona2023 — The result - a pretty tree against a pretty wall of red rock.

arizona2023 — The next stop was at the Spanish Mural Panel which is a long scene of horsemen including a figure in red near the center - often called the priest of the group.

The pictograph represents a historical event that took place in 1805, when a group of Spanish soldiers led by Lieutenant Antonio Narbona entered Canyon de Chelly on a punitive expedition, in response to Navajo raids on Spanish settlements.

arizona2023 — Rock art.

arizona2023 — This rock formation was at the confluence of two streams in the canyon and looks like a skull. The trees in the foreground are 30 feet high to give an idea of the scale of the rock formation - huge.

arizona2023 — The canyon is owned by and lived in by the Navajo. All throughout the canyon we saw livestock and farms. Here a group of horses checks out the photographers.

arizona2023 — I liked the red bolder and the tree sitting in the creek bed together.

arizona2023 — The patina on the red rock.

arizona2023 — Tree trunks in the stream bed.

arizona2023 — We walked to Standing Cow petroglyph which towers over a much more modern hogan built by the Navajos who own the land in the 60s. The hogan was built recycling the sandstone bricks from the various ruins.

arizona2023 — Found the sharp figure in the rock wall interesting.

arizona2023 — Isolating the colorful leaves on a Cottonwood.

arizona2023 — The rock wall towering over Standing Cow.

arizona2023 — Our next stop was Junction Ruins - the ruins are at the confluence of Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly.

arizona2023 — Rock patina and the red rock.

arizona2023 — The sandy road along the canyon floor.

arizona2023 — Junction Ruins in black and white.

arizona2023 — We traveled to Tunnel Canyon Overlook for sunset. This is the first overlook into the canyon. At first, it seemed understated compared to other grand views into Canyon de Chelly on the south side.

Tunnel canyon quickly goes from the overlook into the canyon but not a cliff drop. Therefore, it is possible to hike to the canyon floor from the overlook (if you ar Navajo or guided by a Navajo).

arizona2023 — I liked a rock formation deep into the canyon.

arizona2023 — Tunnel Canyon framing the trees and rocks of Canyon de Chelly.

arizona2023 — The red rocks glow orange in the setting sun.

arizona2023 — Setting sun in the canyon.

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Cal and VA | Adventures | Canyon de Chelly

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