This morning turned out sunny with the promise of warm weather. I drove along the rim of Canyon de Chelly and stopped to admire the view from several overlooks. The view are totally awesome – sheer cliffs of hundreds of feet, colorful sandstone formations, meadows nestled in the valley below.
The park is located on Navaho Indian land so they take advantage of every oppertunity to sell their wares to the tourists. Every place you stop the Indians have their tables set up to sell jewelry and other trinkets. There is only one trail leading to Pueblo Indian ruins that you can go to unguided, all the rest require that you hire a guide or join a tour. You can probably guess which trail this high plains thrifter took.
It was a fun walk down the cliff face to the valley where the ruins lay. Some of the trail was chisled from the rock face and in a couple spots tunneled several yards through. At the bottom, I had to pass more tables of jewelry and a fence kept onlookers back over 100 feet from the ruins.
On the way back up it started to rain. I ducked under ledges when the showers became steady and hiked when they let up. At the top, I could see lighting in the distance so I decided to call it a day, get something to eat, and head back to the campground. Tomorrow I will head to Mesa Verde NP.
I appreciate your larger font; now I can read it easier.
I sometimes find when I’m in those areas, I have to make myself look around at the beauty. If I don’t, I get it in the back of my mind that it is just desert and cliffs, and I should head on down the road in search of some forest or lake.
One nice thing about the Navajo sellers is that they don’t usually barrage you with bartering. They just lay their stuff out and wait for you to ask “how much” and offer your dollars, unlike Mexico, where they assault you on the street with high pressure and constant negotiation.
You want high pressure selling/hawking, try taking a tour in China…
Donna: Hold your Ctrl key and move your scroll wheel. You can change the font size easily.
Daryl, I’m not old enough to have to increase the font size on my screen. 😉
Daryl, do you always get blamed for everything?