Hi Everyone,
On day 3 of our Arizona trip we went to Canyon de Chelly. When people think of Arizona and canyons they tend to think of the Grand Canyon. Canyon de Chelly (CdC) is of the lesser known canyons that was a wonderful treat for us. This was probably my favourite part of the trip.
I've had to narrow down our over 100 photos of this area to five since that appears to be all I can post on each blog entry. Not an easy choice. So here they are and the photos don't do it justice. Most of the canyon is seen from the top and there are two drives that you can do, the north and south rim. We were fortunate to have been able to do both of them.
CdC doesn't draw the crowds that some of the more famous tourist spots of Arizona does. That was fine by us and we spent a lot of time with many of the overlooks to ourselves. There's something hypnotic about the place. Many of the ruins are placed up in the cliffs and it's so easy to get lost in pondering what life might have been like back then.
We had the afternoon on Day 3 and we did the South Rim drive the hike down to White House Trail which ended up being easier than it sounded and more beautiful than we expected. CdC is about a 5 hour drive from Phoenix and 3 hours from Flagstaff.
If you're interested in Canyon de Chelly (which you should be if you're even remotely in the area), below are some websites with additional information. If you look at the Wikipedia link you'll see a photo by Ansel Adams. One of ours is close to that photo (though, of course, not near as beautiful).
http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_cdc_main.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_Chelly_National_Monument
http://www.nps.gov/cach/
http://www.americansouthwest.net/arizona/canyon_de_chelly/national_monument.html
