After visiting Arches National Park in Southern Utah, we continued to Northern Arizona, where we decided to visit Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona. Highway 191 is very desolate but the scenery was interesting

Canyon de Chelly was established as a national monument in April of 1931 to preserve the cliff dwellings in the 3 surrounding canyons. The monument is located on the Navajo Indian reservation, which makes sense why it is administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All of the land is privately owned by the area Navajo residents. The canyon walls range from 30 feet to over 1000 feet high.

Because it is on private land, the monument uses public roads with pullouts and side roads to view Canyon de Chelly. We laughed because in Yellowstone NP it is Bison jams, in Arizona you wait for horses. The first stop was Tunnel Overlook, which gave us our first view of the lower canyon.

At Junction Overlook, the canyon became deeper and we saw our first cliff dwellings across the canyon.

At Junction Overlook, we met Newton, an area artist. His grandmother owns land in the Canyon de Chelly, where he gathers sandstone slabs to paint on. We purchased one of his paintings.

At sliding House Overlook, there are foot prints and stairs carved in the sandstone so can follow the trail.

Sliding House Overlook…the views are breath-taking

The canyons were occupied for 5,000 years, but 700 years ago, the people moved away. Their cliff dwellings are no longer occupied, but the Navajo people who arrived in 1700, still raise crops and sheep in the canyons.

Our last stop on the south side of the Monument was at Spider Rock. The walk to the viewpoint was very nice in the evening sun.

Spider Rock is a prominent feature in the monument, standing 750 feet tall. Legend states that a Navajo woman known as “Spider Woman” lived here. She weaved the universe and the Navajo people using her web. She then taught the people how to weave so they could create their own beauty. From Spider Rock you can see Black Rock Butte in the distance.

Viewing tubes help locate the cliff dwellings across the canyon.

It is crazy to imagine living on these cliffs!!

We backtracked on Highway 7 and went to the north side of the Monument to Antelope House Overlook, near the bottom of Canyon de Muerto.

You can see the remnants of the Navajo Fortress, which was an Army Outpost in the 1840s. Jim’s distant uncle, Kit Carson, was in charge of the military unit that rounded up the Navajo people in the canyon, which culminated in the “Long Walk”. It is a sad and unsavory part of his family history.

We followed the trail to the Antelope House viewpoint

We could maybe live in these dwellings as the hike from the canyon floor isn’t too bad. These are called Antelope House, for the drawings created by a later resident. These dwellings were occupied until the late 1890s.

It had been an amazing unplanned side trip!!