CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT

You pronounce this Canyon De Shay.  This is another place that is not close to anything and there aren't any RV parks close.  There is one RV park there but it doesn't have any hook-ups.  But, Mr. W had read a lot about it and wanted to drive over to see it.

We decided to stop at a town called Window Rock.  Window Rock is the headquarters for the Navajo nation.  It isn't a very big town and most of the town consisted of the complex of buildings associated with the Navajo nation.  They do have a park where the window rock is (thus the name of the town) and it has a memorial wall to all the Navajos that were killed in World War II.  They have a great statue of a Code Talker from World War II.  You can read what a Code Talker is in the pic below.  We owe them a great big thanks and in my opinion, they don't receive enough credit or recognition for what they did.

The window rock

The memorial wall

Our next stop was Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. John Lorenzo Hubbell was one of the most respected traders of his day.  He admired and encouraged American Indian arts and crafts and traded with Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Pima, Tohono O'odham, and Apache.  When Hubbell started his trading post here in the 1870's, his property had no official boundary.  In 1880 the Navajo Nation expanded, engulfing the trading post and ranch property, and Hubbell put in his claim for the 160-acre homestead.  Hubbell and other traders who set up posts on the reservation were different.  They didn't impose their beliefs, values, and systems onto an established native culture but sought a balance, one that profited their businesses, while respecting Navajo traditions. Hubbell died in 1930 and was buried on the hill overlooking the trading post.  Hubbell Trading Post stayed in the family until 1967, when Dorothy Hubbell, one of his daughter-in-laws, sold it to the National Park Service to be preserved as a national historic site.  Today, as in 1876, American Indians brig handcrafted rugs, jewelry, pottery, and baskets to the trading post.

One room of Indian goods for sale at the trading post.

Front of trading post where you enter.

Barn and blacksmith area

This turkey would walk up to anyone with a camera and spread his feathers and gobble at you.

We finally made it to Canyon De Chelly and it was well worth it.  It was a beautiful place. 

This is right in the middle of thousands of acres of Indian reservation land.  Because it does, there are many roads you cannot drive on because it is private property.

This is a traditional Indian house.  It is called a hogan.  They will build a hogan on their property first and live in it until they get their American style home built.

The inside of the hogan. 

The roads you can drive on have beautiful scenic overlooks of the canyon.

The Indians will take you on tours in the bottom of the canyon either by truck or horseback.

There were cliff dwellings all over the canyon.

There were Navajo Indians set up selling their wares at almost all the overlooks.  Some of their stuff is beautiful.  A lot of them had done paintings on pieces of rock.  That was the first time I had seen that and I really liked that.  Some had also made necklaces from tiny beads and had done traditional Indian drawings with the beads to make the necklace.  They were really nice and different.  I would have loved to have one.  Maybe next time.

This is Spider Rock.  It is named after the Holy Spider Woman who taught the people how to weave.  It is a very sacred place for them.

I got the truck key before he climbed up there.  I didn't want to have to find his body down below before I could leave the park. :)
 

This place is really worth the drive to see.  It is so stinking hot right now that it is hard to get out and see much.  However, the breeze felt really good here and it didn't seem as hot as it was.  I really wasn't very impressed with Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  It was a big let down to me.  I thought maybe since I had seen so much beautiful stuff that I was becoming a little jaded.  But, this place was beautiful so I think the others really were a let down.  Go see this when you can and it is free to enter.