Friday, November 03, 2006

I Heart Nevada Day

I'm sorry you all don't get to celebrate Nevada Day. My three-day weekend was fantastic! Wendi and I celebrated Nevada Day by going to Arizona.

Wendi's cousin is working on her dissertation on the Navajo Reservation so we went to visit her. While there, we ate and moteled on Route 66, saw the Grand Canyon, fell in love with Flagstaff (and decided we need to move there) and visited Canyon de Chelly. Most of my pictures are from Canyon de Chelly because it was absolutely stunning. Also because I forgot the extra batteries for my camera. Perhaps I will post a few more pictures from the other parts of the trip after I get some from Wendi.



Here is the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon reminded me of a quintessential 1950's family vacation. There's the typical National Park Service visitors center and rangers giving tours. There are several overlook areas where you can park your station wagon, go take pictures of the view, and then move on to the next overlook. The South Rim also has the Grand Canyon Village complete with a shower house, laundry mat, general store and a small library.

My favorite part was the couple who were dressed to the nines for their visit to the Grand Canyon. She was wearing black coat with a hug fur collar, black slacks and high heeled boots. The Grand Canyon is a classy place.

Canyon de Chelly (du-shay) is more my speed. (Despite the shocking lack of people in heels!) I recommend that you put this destination on your short list of places you need to see. Here are a few pieces of photographic persuasion.

We stopped at several spots with ruins, petroglyphs or ancient Anasazi trails. Our guide, Tommie, knew a ton about the area, the history and many Navajo traditions/practices.

Don't you wish that was your car? Next time I will bring my Subaru and it will love me for it.

This is Wendi, taking what is- I'm sure -an equally beautiful picture. There was literally breath-taking beauty in every direction and around every corner.

See what I mean? We hiked to an overlook area. Our guide told us that his mom used to take this route (up and out of the canyon) to the bus stop to get to school every day! I was insanely jealous.

Tommie told us that Navajo tradition explains the stains on the canyon walls are the blood of the three-horned monster that created the canyon when he gored the earth, trying to kill the Navajo who had used the gopher's tunnel to sneak up on him and shoot him. (The Navajo got away.)

A little advice about Canyon de Chelly:

1- Go in the spring or fall. Photographers (including Ansel Adams) come from around the world to photograph the canyon at its peak. If you want to see incredible color (as pictured above) go around Halloween.

2- You cannot go into the canyon without a guide. The National Park Service charges $65 for the day (I can't tell from the website if it's per vehicle or per person.) I really enjoyed having a Navajo guide. They charge $20/hour per vehicle if you bring your own vehicle (4-wheel drive required). Our guide was Tommie. He said his website is called MummyTours.com, but I couldn't find it. We werreferreded to him by his "cousin", who was already booked for the day. It sounded a little sketchy, but this is common. As we drove into the canyon a woman leaving the canyon stopped us and asked if we would take some keys to her niece at a certain ruin. It's a small community.

3- Plan to spend a full day. We spent 4 hours in the canyon. We drove around a lot and saw a lot of different places, but when I looked at the map, I was surprised to see that we had only seen a small portion of the canyon. Overnight camping trips can be arranged. I would definitely go for that-- you could drive around to see a lot on one day and and do some serious hiking on the next.

4- Our guide mentioned races that are held in the canyon. Cool! After an internet search I have discovered that 5 and 10k's are held throughout the year and hosted by the Navajo Nation, but I didn't see anything on the Navajo Nation website or the Nation's Parks and Rec site. Hmmm.

2 Comments:

Blogger annzy said...

I have a lovely ring i bought in Canyon de Chelly with the name henry inscribed on the inside ~it was a pretty place to visit.

5:15 PM  
Blogger vine street said...

My favorite picture is the yellow tree, and then my next favorite picture is the one with you standing in front of the water pool.

I just got your message...i'll try to catch you during one of your lunch breaks this week!

8:12 PM  

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