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.
Antelope House from the ground.
And the pictographs for which it was named.
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.
And here's White House Ruin again - this time from the ground - I'm back a ways and up on a little hill.
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.
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.
More of those amazing Cottonwoods.
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.