On the Road e-mail #10 (Page 2 of 6) (May 6 - May 7) Albuquerque, NM to Canyon DeChelly Sunday, May 6 - Monday May 7 - Joe & Nancy Sue Reeves "On the Road": We left Albuquerque before 8AM, stopped for gas and breakfast at a Stuckey's and got to Canyon DeChelly (pronounced "DeShay") National Monument, at 1:30. We got a campsite and watched the movie at the visitor center. There is evidence of different groups of Indians living in this canyon since 2500 BC, and the Navaho still live here. We'll drive around the canyon tomorrow to make pictures and see the sights. There is no entry charge to this park and the campground is FREE. Monday, we are about 5500 feet here and the temp this morning was 36. We drove the canyons rims today and stopped at 11 different viewpoints. The canyon walls are mostly red in color and some are vertical for several hundred feet. There are many interesting, near vertical, rock formations inside the canyon. The inside of the canyon is private land, owned by the Navaho, and to go there you must have a Navaho guide ($65 each for the day, including lunch and a snack) to show you around in his truck. That would be interesting to get a close-up view of the ruins, but a little pricey for our budget and we only planned to stay 1 day. Indians have occupied the floor of the canyon for nearly 5000 years. From the Anasazi in ancient times, who came here after leaving Mesa Verde, to the Basket Makers, the Hopi and finally the Navaho. When their enemies only had arrows, the canyons provided good security, but when the Spanish came with guns, that changed. One place is called massacre cave, because the Spaniards found an overlook where they could see into the cave and while they would have been out of range of arrows, the Spanish with their rifles, killed the whole group of nearly 100 men women and children. In 1863, Col. Kit Carson under orders from the territorial commander, entered the canyon, killing a large number of Navaho and taking the rest prisoner. They were forced to march 300 miles to the stockade at Ft. Sumner, NM where they were kept for 5 years. Over half the survivors of the battle died, on the march or in the stockade. In 1868 the survivors were allowed to return to their canyon, where they still live today. We walked down trails to viewpoints at the stops (some 1/4 mile each way) and Joe got pretty tired on those, but Sue took a hike (3 mile round trip) to the canyon floor at one place where it was permitted. She made good time going in but the climb back out pretty well did her in. We got back to camp at 7:30PM. See Canyon Pictures. Joe & Nancy Sue, “On the Road”, Canyon DeChelly, AZ |