Canyon de Chelly with a Navajo Guide?

[stephenkatsea]

OK moderators, maybe the wrong place for this? But. Have any inmates done this, mandatory Native American guided tour, of the Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Res in NE AZ? It really looks amazing. Any input?

 

[DLC]

Oh I’m interested in this! That would be a great trip!

 

[rrrr]

In 1967 I was ten years old, and my family was living in Holbrook, which is 70 miles east of Flagstaff. My Dad's shop and our house was on the east side of Holbrook, a couple hundred yards south of Route 66. The construction of Interstate 40 was making its way west. The new highway followed 66 pretty closely, but about a quarter mile from our place it jogged north to bypass Holbrook.

The contractors had a clause in their contract requiring exploration of the planned roadbed ahead of excavation and grading to discover archaeological evidence of ancient Indian societies.

Just a few hundred yards from my backyard, a concentration of adobe dwellings and a large kiva were found. The site was about four feet below the existing grade. Over the centuries, that much sand had accumulated over it.

This didn't surprise me much, because me and my friends had previously dug up some adobe outlines visible on the surface behind my house and found pottery shards and arrowheads. But the kiva was a neat find. The circular form of the kiva was built below grade and was used for religious purposes.

An archaeological team went to work on the site, exposing the dwellings, fire pits, and even a garbage dump. The kiva was incredible. It was about 20' in diameter. There were niches in the walls for ceremonial figures, and quite a bit of tools and pottery were found.

It was determined the dwellings were between 1,800 and 2,200 years old. On the other side of the world, the Roman Empire was at its zenith, and the Christian era was expanding. This was all very cool stuff to a ten year old who was suddenly an amateur archaeologist. I took photos of the site with the Kodak Instamatic camera my mom had given me for my birthday. I still have a few of them.

After the site was excavated and catalogued, the bulldozers and scrapers resumed their work of building Interstate 40. Progress didn't care about the small society that had lived near my backyard.

 

[mjc]

I have done monument valley with a guide. It was a nice afternoon trip out where you couldn't go by yourself. Learn a lot of stuff about the Navajo.

 

[2Driver]

Yes we did it in the fall years ago when the cottonwoods were turning color - late Oct.

Really cool. The guide rode in the back seat of our truck and told us the whole story of the canyon and the lifestyle and history of the Navajos. They still live in the canyon and many of the Hogans we passed were owned by his family, so he had a ton of info.
Im surprised they are doing it with Covid.

Where we went you definitely need 4x4 as the sand gets deep, especially where the water is running. Great time, do it.

 

[Mandelon]

its a great trip.

 

[Singleton]

Did it when I was young with grandparents. Want to say it was in Oct / Nov - great trip! Well worth it

 

[angiebaby]

I know they locked down the res last year and I'm curious to know if these tours have resumed. I was looking into the Havasupi Falls hike and it looks like it's still closed. Different reservation, I'm aware, but I know covid hit the Navajos pretty hard and you couldn't even drive through from Moab to Flagstaff last year. So I'm wondering if they are doing tours yet. I'd love to do it if they are.

 

[bilz]

FIL has a friend who Native and also a Ranger. In the late 80s we did a tour with three trucks and he was our guide. Did both canyons, came out with headlights on. Definitely a must. They used to use Army trucks but I think that stopped.

 

[941Punk]

Fuck yeah do it, post pics!