Canyon de Chelly: Views from the Rim
May 19 & 21, 2011

Canyon de Chelly National Monument is composed primarily of two main canyons, Canyon De Chelly and Canyon del Muerto, plus side canyons. Archaelogical evidence showed that people have lived in these canyons for almost 5,000 years. It contains the ruins of pueblos built by the Anazasi about a thousand years ago. The Navajo came here about 300 years ago. The park is on Navajo tribal land, and falls under Navajo, as well as National Park Service, jurisdiction. Visitors are allowed to view the canyon unescorted from the rim and one trail from the rim to the canyon floor. Other than that, trips into the canyon require an authorized Navajo guide. We took the north and south rim drives to view the canyon from rim overlooks and took an all-day guided tour of the canyon. In this webpage we show views from the rim; views from inside canyon are in the next webpage.

The weather here has been surprising to us. We normally think of Arizona as hot and dry. We arrived here three days ago, and it has rained here every day so far. We even had a thunderstorm with a lot of hail; during the hailstorm the temperature dropped to 33 degrees. So much for our preconceptions of Arizona weather.


A view of Canyon de Chelly from Junction Overlook on the south rim. The canyon floor is quite flat and there are some Navajo farms in the canyon. The cliffs are primarily sandstone. Near the mouth of the canyon the cliffs are about 30 feet high, while deeper into the canyon they are 500 - 1000 feet high.






The White House ruins were ocuppied by the ancestral Puebloan people about 1,000 years ago. The White House name arises from the white plaster used on the upper dwelling. A 2.5 mile round trip trail from the rim to the ruin starts from this view point. We took the trail, which as an interesting 2 hour hike since you descend  about 500 feet, but the best views of the ruins are from the rim.








A view from the Face Rock overlook on the south rim. Do you see the Anasazi ruins on the cliff across the canyon? No? Check out the next photo for a little help in finding them.









Look carefully inside the red box.








A telephoto view of the area covered by the red box in the previous photo. Can you imagine living in such a place a thousand years ago? Better not walk in your sleep, or go wandering around after drinking alcohol.








Spider Rock is an 800 foot high sandstone pillar at the junction of Canyon de Chelly (on the left) and Monument Canyon (going to the right). The South Rim drive ends here.






The North Rim Drive takes you to overlooks of Canyon del Muerto, which is the other main canyon in the park. This viewpoint overlooks the Antelope ruins, which is a standard stop for canyon tours.







The Antelope ruins. They are named after the Navajo antelope paintings on a nearby cliff, but building at this site began around 700 A.D. The structures you see were built after 1050 A.D.



 The imposing rock in the center is called Navajo fortress, since the Navajo used it as as a refuge against enemy attack. Although connected to the canyon wall behind it, there is an 80 foot section that could be climbed only with the aid of movable, notched "stairways". Once the poles were pulled up, the rock was essentially inaccessible to the enemy. It was used as a refuge until about 1860.






This is called the Mummy Cave Ruins because two well-preserved mummies were discovered here in 1880 during an archeological expedition. The Navajo called this "House under the Rock". The design of the buildings suggests that the builders came here from the Mesa Verde area sometime around 1280 A.D.








The ledge under the rock overhang on the left is known as Massacre Cave. In 1805 Spanish soldiers discovered Navajo hiding there and killed them all by firing from the place where I took this photo. The Spanish reports claim they killed 90 Navajo warriors and 25 women and children, while Navajo reports claim that the warriors were away on a hunting party, and the Navajo killed by Spanish were almost totally women and children.