Ken's Journal - Fall 2003
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Tuesday, 10/28/2003, Day 15. Canyon de Chelly, Day 2. (Cont.) | |
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This should give you some idea of the scale of the canyon. My Jeep is sitting 50 feet back in a cut under several hundred feet of sandstone. Pretty impressive! Also pretty humbling. |
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Antelope House from the ground. |
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And the pictographs for which it was named. |
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Not as remote as you might think. This was a big day - most of these people came into the canyon with a guide - some in their own vehicle and some as part of a group in a tour vehicle. Some of these people are vendors - local Navajo who are licensed to set up a stand or table and sell Native art - jewelry, baskets, blankets, etc. (My Jeep Jeep closest to you.) Antelope House is behind the trees. |
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And here's White House Ruin again - this time from the ground - I'm back a ways and up on a little hill. |
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To the left is a shot from the ground that shows the lower part of the White House settlement. At about 2:00 to the center you can see the same petroglyph that is barely visible at center bottom in the picture above - look between the two trees above. There are more petroglyphs around that one but they are very faint because they've weathered quite a bit. |
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My guide, James Yazzie - very knowledgeable. He also leads camping trips, hiking trips, horseback, photography and hunting trips into the canyon and locally on the reservation -- if you're interested, give him a call at 928 674 5647, or mail at PO Box 2102, Chinle, AZ 86503. |
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More of those amazing Cottonwoods. |
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Wednesday, 10/29/2003, Day
16. Canyon de Chelly, Day 3. Went on a trail Ride today. I didn't bring a camera with me because I'd be covering territory I'd been over in the Jeep, and more importantly, I figured I'd have my hands full with the horse! The horse is a Mustang - an Indian Pony. This one, Blue Jay, is pretty broke but with a mind of his own. He's colored like an Appaloosa, light grey with black freckles and is stocky and muscular. His head is shaped like that of a Pasofina, a Mexican horse. I've had it confirmed by other locals that the Indian mustangs are somewhat related to the Pasofina. This one would either walk real slow or trot - so to keep up with my guide, I'd have to walk for a while dropping back a ways, then trot to catch up. For a while, we even tried a lope - sorta in-between a trot and a gallop. The horse was pretty good though - he just had a poor, inexperienced rider who couldn't figure out how to make the horse go the speed I wanted. I had a choice between a four hour ride and a seven hour ride - I really wanted to do the seven hour ride as it was in the upper reaches of the canyon. Wisely, I chose the shorter, easier ride! Our ride started from the corral right outside the campground, to White House ruin and back - maybe ten miles total. I really wasn't interested in photos, I just wanted the "seat time" so to speak! My guide's name was Eddie Draper -- a good guide and a good horseman -- Now I'm kinda sorry I didn't have a camera with me - at least in the Jeep - to get a shot of the corral, the horse and Eddie! Oh, well. Time to go. Tomorrow is a travel day - to Monument Valley UT. |
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