Canyon de Chelly
Spirits Dwell in Remote, Haunting Arizona Canyon
By Ron Butler

According to Navajo legend, the gods chose Canyon de Chelly as the stepping-stone to heaven. In and around its sculptured recesses, fields of fruit and corn, glistening streams, grazing sheep and traditional Navajo hogans of logs and mud form a timeless tableau.

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de-SHAY) is found in the northeast corner of Arizona in the heart of Navajo Tribal Trust Lands, where red walls reach majestically toward the sky. The Navajo residents of Canyon de Chelly are primarily farmers and sheepherders, adhering to the centuries-old traditions of their forefathers. Preservation of the land is inherent in traditional Navajo values. Silence is the perfect equilibrium.

Canyon de Chelly is the Grand Canyon State’s second largest canyon. It’s located in the heart of the 25,000-square-mile Navajoland, whose other scenic wonders include Monument Valley, the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. Three-pronged Canyon de Chelly (the triad also includes Canyon del Muerto and Monument Canyon) is difficult to reach and dangerous to explore. Visitors must be accompanied by authorized Native American guides. It’s not for the fainthearted. Fragile rock, unfamiliar terrain, loose sand, quicksand and flash floods make exploration and hiking especially dangerous. The canyon is often impassible in winter and during times of heavy rain.

Canyon de Chelly’s 83,840 acres were declared a national monument in 1931. Although on Indian land, it’s administered by the National Parks Department whose attractive hogan-style visitor’s center at the mouth of the canyon in Chinle is the epicenter of all visitor and tourist activity in the area. A ranger-staffed information desk, a museum, exhibits by local artists, staff talks and demonstration, and free coffee in the morning all await.
Outside, groups of Navajo guides generally congregate, talking, smoking, and waiting to hook up with a group or individual wanting to head into the canyon. When asked if he’s available, Eddie Draper, with a wide-brimmed hat and shoulder-length hair, jokingly checked his calendar. He’s free for the day he told me and my companion, photographer Gary Auerbach. Eddie offered to drive Gary’s SUV into the canyon because recent rains had washed out or still covered some of the roads. But the car was new and Gary wanted to see how it handled in rough terrain, and to stop here and there, as photographers do.

Eddie, we learned, has visited almost all areas of Arizona, but his only trip out of the state was to Los Angeles, and he didn’t like it very much. He prefers the timeless recesses of Canyon de Chelly where he was raised in a dirt-floor hogan next to a cornfield. We visited the log and mud-brick hogan of his youth, marveling how a dwelling so small could have once housed a family of five.

The day was a full one. Prize archeological sites carved into the canyon’s steep cliffs include Antelope House (named for the Navajo antelope drawings found on its walls) and White House (so named because its upper walls are whitewashed with mineral spills). Overall, 140 prehistoric village sites, from simple Anasazi pit houses to multi-story pueblos — history’s first apartment houses — are located at Canyon de Chelly. The lofty dwellings were so situated to receive the full sun in winter and cooling shade in the summer and for protection from predators, man and beast. The canyonlands are home to panthers, bears, rattlesnakes and wolves. Some of the sites date back to the 4th century.

Mummy Cave is where two Anasazi mummies were found in the 1880s, their bodies flexed and laid on yucca mats, preserved for centuries in the desert dryness. They now reside in the Smithsonian.
The Navajo came to Canyon de Chelly long after the original Anasazi (“the ancient ones”), early ancestors of the Pueblo and Navajo, had vanished, Eddie told us. It was from a desert stronghold in Canyon de Chelly that Kit Carson and his troops drove the Navajos in 1864, and forced them on the infamous Long March, 300 miles on foot to the Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. Less than half survived the march. The Navajo resettled Canyon de Chelly four years later.

Not surprisingly, Canyon de Chelly is popular with artists as well as photographers. “There’s magic in the canyon,” said late Navajo artist R.C. Gorman, who was born and grew up in Canyon de Chelly. In his art-lavish autobiography, The Radiance of my People, he writes “I was always in awe of the ruins. I felt there were still people living in them and I still feel that way today. There’s an eerie feeling that they’re looking down at you. It makes you feel you should have brought a gift.” His father, Carl Gorman, was one of the famous Navajo Code Talkers during World War II.
Before his death in 1982, Arizona’s most celebrated artist, Ted DeGrazia, went to Canyon de Chelly often because it was the only place where the people still used wagons with teams of horses. The pickup truck had made inroads, but the horse and wagon prevailed. “Many moons, as the Indians say, have passed since I made my first trip into the land of the Navajos in the late 1930s,” said DeGrazia. “Sometimes as an artist, sometimes just to find peace and tranquility that the Navajos and their land seem to offer me.”
And now us. It was a full day, highlighted by a visit to Spider Rock, a magnificent tower of stone that looms high above the desert floor and, as we approached, shimmered radiantly in the last light of day. It’s believed that the fabled Spider Woman lives on top of Spider Rock and comes down late at night to take disobedient children back with her. Indeed, the white colored rocks on top are made up of their bleached bones. “It’s probably not true,” Eddie said as we turned the car and reluctantly headed back.

If You Go:
Tours
Free ranger-led canyon hikes depart from the visitor’s center each morning at 8:30 from May 1 to September l. All other tours of Canyon de Chelly and its tributaries, either on foot or in four-wheel drive vehicles, must be made in the company of authorized Navajo guides who are available for hire at the Visitors Center or at Thunderbird Lodge. The cost is $15 per hour, either in a vehicle provided by the visitor or when hiking.

The nearby Thunderbird Lodge offers tours into the canyon with 4-and 6-wheel drive vehicles. Half-day tours cost $39.95 per person. All-day tours are $64.95, including a box lunch. Reservations are advised and can be made by calling 800-679-2473. The historic lodge, originally built in 1902 as a trading post and upgraded and expanded over the years, offers the only accommodations on the canyon grounds. The hotel has an excellent restaurant/cafeteria and an expansive gift shop, in keeping with its early trading post days.

Several nearby ranches and stables such as Justin’s (520-674-5678) provide horses and guides for horseback treks. There is nothing quite like the sound of hooves on rock as the sun moves across a sky that is as broad and endless as the land beneath it.

Visitors to Canyon de Chelly are requested to respect the privacy and customs of the Navajo people. Enter home areas only when invited. Do not wander across residential areas or disturb property. Obtain permission before taking photographs of Navajo people; a small gratuity may be expected. Do not disturb or remove animals, plants, rocks or artifacts (protected by Tribal Antiquity and Federal Laws). Rock hunting is strictly prohibited.

From Flagstaff, take I-40 east to Chambers and then U.S. 191 north to Ganado, Ariz., and continue 30 miles north to Chinle. From Page, take AZ 98 southeast to Keyenta and continue south on U.S. 191 for 81 miles to Chinle. The Navajo reservation has an open range policy. Watch for animals on the road. For more information, call 928-674-5500 or visit www.nps.gov

Start Planning your Grand Canyon Vacation today!

HIGHROADS March-April Home