Almost stranded in Canyon de Chelly :-)

We hired a Navajo guide named Ben Teller to drive us through the Canyon de Chelly and show us the sites on the canyon floor. You need a 4 wheel drive to visit by vehicle and you can't visit the base of the canyon without a Navajo guide. For good reason as we learned later in the day. Ben is about 75 and has lived in the canyon his whole life (except as a kid when he went to boarding school, as happens here with all kids who live too far from a school to attend as day students). Anyway, it was interesting to hear his version of stories and history passed down through his family, and to see the canyon from his perspective.

Here is Jim taking a photo - gives you an idea of the enormity of the canyon rock faces and how green the vegetation is this year due to the constant rains through this spring and summer. 

You drive (or ride horseback or hike, depending on what type of visit you want to make with your guide) mostly on the river bed since the pastures and other tree-covered areas are privately owned by Navajo and are fenced off. This is what the riverbed looked like when we started out. Kind of muddy, but not too bad. 

This is Antelope House, a ruin near Ben's little house where he an his kids sell jewelry and stuff to any tourists visiting the area. The history of Antelope house is too complex to tell here, but below are some pictographs on the walls nearby 

Here is a zig-zaggy snake, human figures and hand prints and other abstract symbols

Here are antelope and other symbols like a halo around the sun

More animals, human figures ad a rainbow

This is Coyote rock - can you see the coyote howling at the top?

Then it got really interesting as we made our way back. Water had begun to run pretty strongly from further up the canyon and had begun to wash out the places we needed to navigate to return. At one point, Ben, Jim and Ben's grandson who came along behind us in another vehicle and fortunately had two more shovels, had to cut a new path alongside the riverbed and fill in the deep muddy holes. 

Here is the place they made less muddy and we made it through. The vehicle itself is pretty beat up, but these rutted and twisting paths must be hard on the car and make for an interesting ride. Some people call these guides tours by Jeep "Shake and Bake" tours. Hot and bumpy! And this year, there are mosquitoes due to the wet conditions and standing water.  Sort of unusual for us since we haven't been bothered by bugs at all on this whole trip, with the exception of a few flies at Bandelier. 

Here you can see the water beginning to be a problem in the track we had to follow.

Soon we were crossing and recrossing shallow rivers like this, at which the edges gets steeper and steeper each time water flows down the canyon and follows a narrower and narrower path. The water picks up speed and each time erodes the bed further rather than spreading out on a flatter canyon floor. Although the National Park Service is supposed to maintain the canyon, it seems they lack the time, resources or inclination to help really make this place safer for visitors and the Navajo themselves. A couple of weeks ago a disabled local girl died in a flood when the vehicle carrying her dropped into a sinkhole. We saw the area taped off. Apparently from time to time the Park Service closes the canyon to traffic, but that's about it.   

On a brighter note, this last photo shows some kids on horseback - looks like fun! Except maybe for the mosquitoes!