Tour of Canyon De Chelly

On the weekend of the dediction to the Gila Valley Temple, David and I decided we would go up to Canyon De Chelly and spend the night in Chinle and go to the Dedication at that Stake Center on Sunday. We got up at 3am Sat. morning and by 9am or so we were in Canyon De Chelly. On the way we went to the Chinle Elementary school where David went to school. Next we went to the visitors center for Canyon De Chelly and started our days adventure...... by the way the wind that day and weekend was blowing up to 70 miles and hour gusts....

Chinle Elementary School

1st Overlook

Just a small part of the Canyon.

You can take a Jeep tour that goes through the bottom of the Canyon.


The wall that I am sitting on is right on the edge of the 600ft. canyon. The wind, as you can see, was doing its best to blow me over the edge.

You could also take horseback rides through the bottom.


I was right on the edge of the 600 ft. drop, hanging on for dear life and staying low so as not to blow over the edge.

This is one of the first indian ruins that you see and the next stop we took we were able to take the two hour hike down to it. The hike was unique in that the trail was carved out of the solid rock face of the canyon in certain places.


This is at the very beginning of the trail and it is carved/blasted out of the solid rock face.


This is a second tunnel as come out down at the bottom of the trail. Behind me is a hogan that as far as we could tell is still being used.

These next few pictures are of the ruin that we hiked down to . You can also get to them by riding in a jeep tour or on horseback. It is fenced so you can not go into them. These pictures are pretty amazing.
This sign was at the top of the canyon and the walk ways and fences are right up to the edge of the sheer rock drop offs.

We were at the bottom, and I took this of David looking up from the front of the ruin. It is an amazing sight. Very scary from the top side.

This was one of the last overlooks on the south side of the canyon.

This rock formation was called Spider Womans Rock, and it has a story behind it but I can't remember the exact story, but it was a really neat formation.



Our last stop was on the north end of the Canyon, and this was where the wind was blowing the worst. I would take a step and the wind would hold me there and I would have to fight to put my foot down and not loose my footing. It really was kind of scary. David was near the edge looking and taking pictures and a gust of wind almost knocked him off his feet. If he had been right on the edge of the canyon...........................
These last two ruins were tucked up under the canyon walls. It is amazing how they Indians were able to build such structures with out any real tools, machines, dymamite, etc.....

After we got done we decided we needed to go back to Chinle and find a hotel to stay in so that we could clean out our ears from all the sand and get rested up for the dedication of the Temple. As we got into town and was trying to find a hotel the wind was literally blowing 70 to 80 miles and hour and as you can see this is what we were seeing. So we decided we did not want to spend another day in the wind so, going very slow we pointed the BMW toward home. When we finally got to Holbrook we stopped to eat at the local Pizza Hut and were told we would have to stay for awhile because I-40 was closed due to the high winds. So we ate and by the time we were done they had opened the freeway and home we came. We got home at about 9:30 pm after getting up a 3am. Needless to say it had been a very long day. But we awoke the next morning and got dressed and went to the Temple Dedication at the Cottonwood Stake Center. It was very special and we were glad that we were at home for this special occasion. We plan someday to go back to Canyon De Chelly, but we will definitly make sure that the wind is not blowing!!!!


Home is out there somewhere??