After a quick stop at a WalMart Super Center and Home Depot, we left Gallup, NM on Wednesday morning, leaving the interstate behind us again. We went north on the highway that was once highway 666, but which has since been renamed, and then turned and headed west on highway 264 across the Navajo reservation. After a quick stop at Hubbel Trading Post, where we saw hundreds of Navajo rugs which we couldn't afford, we were headed for Canyon de Chelly, which is about 30 miles north of highway 264. We asked Niles, the voice of our GPS for directions. Obviously Niles was not familiar with the Navajo reservation. He insisted on directing us north on every dirt road and trail that we came to, including ones that had a closed gate across them. We eventually turned Nile off and used our map and turned north on highway 191 a little west of the town of Ganado. We made it to Chinle, the town outside Canyon de Chelly, about noon. After a quick trip to the visitor center, we had a picnic lunch at the picnic grounds and headed on the south rim drive. We stopped at the first overlook, which was almost completely occupied by Native Americans selling their wares. We were impressed by the work of a couple of the artists, and ended up buying some small rock art from two artisans--one for a gift and one to keep.
We stopped at two more overlooks, Whitehouse Ruins and Spider Rock. Both were absolutely spectacular. I agree with Frommers that, while dramatically different from the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly is nonetheless spectacular and worthy of a visit. The red rock walls contrasting with the green floor of the canyon is gorgeous. I zoomed by camera as much as I could and came away with a reasonably good picture of Whitehouse Ruins, which was quite a way away.
Spider Rock was really the highlight, though. It is a spire rising from the bottom of the canyon to almost the height of the rim. It's a photographer's dream, and I wish that I could have done it more justice. By the time we left Spider Rock, it was about 2:00 p.m. and we needed to push on to the Grand Canyon. Canyon de Chelly, however is definitely on our revisit list, and next time I want to hike to the bottom of the canyon and get as close to Whitehouse Ruins as is permissible.
After a dramatic, but tiring, drive across the Navajo reservation, we came in the east gate to GCNP and made it to our friends Larry and Shelly Thompson's house around 6:30, just in time to take advantage of one of Larry's famous grill-fests. We had barbecued chicken and ribs and the whole works. Larry and Shelly have never learned the secret of cooking small portions, and boy, am I glad! After dinner we chatted with them until almost midnight, and then went to bed in our motor home, which was parked and hooked up to utilities in their driveway.
On Friday, we visited the new exhibit at Yavapai Observation Station and the renovated El Tovar Hotel, both of which Lois and I had not seen and both of which were extremely impressive. We then went by the Headquarters building, and I visited some old friends and coworkers, who were unlucky enough to be working on a lovely Friday afternoon at one of the world's most beautiful sites. I was especially happy to see JoAnne Fearon, the Budget Chief, and Mary Killeen, whose husband I had seen a few days ago at Home Depot in Durango. Last night we had a delightful pizza dinner with Larry, Shelly, their daughter Jennifer and grandchildren, Alex, Dominic and Mackenzie.
This morning I attended a digital photo workshop sponsored by Canon cameras. It was conducted by renowned wildlife photographers and was held on the rim of the canyon. Canon provided the students top-of-the-line digital SLRs and lenses and then gave us tips on how to take better pictures. The wildlife accommodated us, and we had California Condors circling overhead and elk browsing a short distance from the ruin.
Tonight, the Canon folks will have the pictures that we took with their equipment transferred to a CD and we'll have a slide show at the Shrine of the Ages. If any of the pictures that I took are "keepers", I'll upload them to the journal.
After the photo workshop, we had a delicious lunch at the gourmet El Tovar dining room and then rode around the park looking at other familiar sites.
Tomorrow Lois and I will push on to points North. We really haven't decided where we're going from here. We had originally planned to visit the North Rim, Zion and Bryce Canyon before heading north toward Salt Lake City. Now we're toying with the idea of heading toward Moab, Utah from here and stopping by to see our friends Kate Cannon, Ross Rice and their girls. I suppose we'll have to make a decision tonight or some time tomorrow, before we get to where the road divides.
More later.
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